Pd/π-Acidic Ligand Catalyzed ArI and Alkyl-In Cross-Coupling Reactions under Mild Conditions

Transition metal-catalyzed coupling reaction is an important approach to form C-C bond, in which palladium is the most popularly used catalyst. Up to now, the formation of Csp(2)-Csp(2) has been widely reported in the presence of palladium catalysts. However, Csp(3)-related bond formations are relatively less demonstrated owing to the slow reductive elimination of the corresponding Pd species. We have reported that pi-acidic ligand could promote the reductive elimination of Csp(3)-Pd-Csp(2), which is significant to construct Csp(3)-C bond. In this comunication, with Pd/pi-acidic ligand as the catalyst, ArI and alkylindium reagents could be coupled together under mild conditions in high selectivity to form Csp(2)-ArCsp(3) bond. Primary and secondary alkylindium could be tolerated. Moreover, further studies indicated that the reaction could be performed well when the reactions were open to air, suggesting that the reaciton was insensitive towards moisture and oxygen.