Synthesis of novel palladium N-heterocyclic-carbene complexes as catalysts for Heck and Suzuki cross-coupling reactions

Novel palladium-1,3-dialkylperhydrobenzimidazolin-2-ylidene (2a-c) and palladium-1,3-dialkylimidazolin-2-ylidene complexes (4a,b) have been prepared and characterized by C, H, N analysis, H-1-NMR and C-13-NMR. Styrene or phenylboronic acid reacts with aryl halide derivatives in the presence of catalytic amounts of the new palladium-carbene complexes, PdCl2(1,3-dialkylperhydrobenzimidazolin-2-ylidene) or PdCl2(1,3-dialkylimidazolin-2-ylidene) to give the corresponding C-C coupling products in good yields. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.