Coupling reactions palladium® chloride — tertiary phosphine

The main driving forces behind the development of new tertiary phosphine palladium complexes for C(sp )—C(sp) couplings have been (i) a reduction or elimination of side reactions, such as Glaser-type homocouplings (ii) the development of environmentally friendly reaction protocols, such as copper-free reactions in benign solvents (iii) the improvement of catalyst stabihty and activity [higher turnover number (TON) and turnover frequency (TOP)] and (iv) a cost reduction by using less-expensive aryl bromides, or even aryl chlorides under mild reaction conditions, for example, at ambient temperature. 

On the other hand, true ligand acceleration (type 3 processes) shows preference for solvents of low polarity and lower Lewis basicity (toluene, dioxane and THF) with soluble tertiary amines as bases. In this respect, these Mizoroki-Heck reactions resemble cross-coupling processes, which also display strong preference for these solvents. Reactions in nonpolar solvents (toluene or xylene) have been known since Heck s seminal articles [8]. The halide remains a crucial subject of concern in reactions catalysed by phosphine complexes of palladium, aryl iodides prefer triarylphosphines and polar solvents, whereas reactions of aryl bromides and chlorides indeed prefer electron-rich trialkylphosphines and nonpolar solvents [63-65]. 

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