New acetylacetonato-palladacycles in Heck-catalysis

Phospha-palladacycles are very powerful palladium catalyst systems for the Heck reaction. The new catalysts, acetylacetonato substituted phospha-palladacycles, are prepared by the addition of acetylacetonate to phospha-palladacycles. They are obtained in quantitative yield after straightforward workup. A selection of the new acetylacetonato-palladacycles is tested in Heck coupling reaction of aryl chlorides and bromides with styrene. Turnover numbers higher than 320,000 and yields ≤ 99% are obtained. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 229th ACS National Meeting (San Diego, CA 3/13-17/2005).