A highly active and selective palladium pincer catalyst for the formation of alpha-aryl ketones via cross-coupling

Several air and moisture stable Pd(Pi) pincer complexes were synthesized via oxidative addition of Pd(0) to novel PheBox pincer ligand precursors. Low loadings (1 mol%) of the Pd complex [t-BuPhebox-Me-2]PdBr are capable of efficiently promoting the selective alpha-monoarylation of a variety of ketones with numerous aryl bromides in only 1 h at 70 degrees C with 82-99% yields.