Defined Palladium Phthalimidato Catalysts for Improved Oxidative Amination

New palladium(II)–phthalimidato complexes have been synthesized, isolated, and structurally characterized. As demonstrated from over 30 examples, they constitute superior catalysts for oxidative amination reactions of alkenes with phthalimide as the nitrogen source. This work streamlines vicinal difunctionalization of alkenes and provides access to significantly improved and experimentally simplified synthetic protocols.