Palladium(II)-pivaloyl thiourea complexes: Synthesis, characterisation and their catalytic activity in mild Sonogashira cross-coupling reaction

[Display omitted] •Palladium(II)-Pivaloyl thiourea complexes successfully synthesized and characterized.•The Pd(II) complexes gave significant results in the Sonogashira catalytic activity.•MC3 with no substitution exhibit the best catalyst as it gave a high conversion rate. We report herein the synthesis of Pd(II) complexes featuring pivaloylthiourea derivatives to investigate their catalytic behaviour in Sonogashira cross-coupling reactions as the homogenous catalyst. The SN2 reactions have resulted in pivaloyl thiourea derivatives ligands with general formula (CH3)3C(O)NHC(S)NHR introducing different substituent groups of NO2 (L1), OCH3 (L2), and H (L3) prior to form complexation with Pd(II) (MC1, MC2, and MC3 respectively). All synthesised compounds were characterised via typical selected spectroscopic and analytical methods. Hence, catalytic screening activity revealed that Pd(II)-pivaloyl thiourea catalysed, featuring MC3, is the best catalyst as it gave a high conversion rate up to 99%.