Influence of the solvent and of the reaction concentration for palladium-catalysed direct arylation of heteroaromatics with 4-bromoacetophenone

Abstract

The solvent is certainly one of the main sources of wastes during palladium-catalysed direct arylation reactions. We found that such direct arylations of heteroaromatics can be performed using very high concentrations of reactants (0.5 M–5 M). However, the Pd catalyst precursor used must be adapted to both the solvent nature and the concentration of reactants. The reactions performed in DMA, NMP or DMF can be carried out in very concentrated reaction mixtures using 0.1 mol% Pd(OAc)2 catalyst without phosphine ligand. On the other hand, the reactions in CPME, pentan-1-ol or diethylcarbonate should be performed with a palladium catalyst associated with a phosphine ligand. These reaction conditions allow us to reduce the amount of wastes formed in the course of these couplings.