Synthetic and Mechanistic Interrogation of Pd/Isocyanide-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling: π-Acidic Ligands Enable Self-Aggregating Monoligated Pd(0) Intermediates

Abstract

Despite the large number of judiciously designed ligands that have been exploited in palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling protocols, the incorporation of ligands bearing appreciable π-acidic properties has remained significantly underexplored. Herein, we demonstrate that well-defined and low-coordinate Pd0 complexes supported by m-terphenyl isocyanides function as competent catalysts for the Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling of aryl bromides and arylboronic acids. Two-coordinate Pd(CNArDipp2)2 was active for the coupling of unhindered aryl bromides at room temperature in 2-propanol, while increasing the temperature to 60 °C allowed for the use of mono- or di-ortho-substituted aryl bromides. Oxidative addition of the aryl bromide was shown to proceed via a dissociative mechanism, implicating monoligated Pd(CNArDipp2) as the catalytically active intermediate. Attempts to access this fleeting species via activation of the PdII monoisocyanide PdCl(η3-C3H5)(CNArDipp2) with alkoxide base yielded the dinuclear PdI spe...