An efficient water-soluble surfactant-type palladium catalyst for Suzuki cross-coupling reactions in pure water at room temperature

A palladium catalyst based on a bidentate phosphine-type zwitterionic surfactant as a ligand exhibited an excellent catalytic activity in the Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling reactions. This novel method allowed the reaction of aryl halides with arylboronic acids to occur in pure water at room temperature, forming a variety of biaryls in good to high yields. Heterobiaryls were also efficiently assembled even in the presence of water-insoluble heteroaryl halides as substrates. In addition, such a coupling protocol was successfully used in the iterative diarylation of 2,5-dibromopyridine in one-pot. An in situ -generated Pd catalyst with a bidentate phosphine-type zwitterionic surfactant as a ligand showed high catalytic activity in the Suzuki reactions.