Palladium-benzimidazolium salt catalyst systems for Suzuki coupling: development of a practical and highly active palladium catalyst system for coupling of aromatic halides with arylboronic acids

Palladium-benzimidazolium salt catalyst systems have been studied for the Suzuki coupling. A different substitutent effect has been uncovered with respect to nitrogen substituents in the benzimidazolium salts from the palladium-imidazolium salt analogs. A practical and highly active palladium catalyst system, PdCl₂/N,N′-dibenzylbenzimidazolium chloride 2, has been identified for the Suzuki coupling of aromatic halides with arylboronic acids. The coupling of a wide array of aromatic halides with arylboronic acids with the PdCl₂-2 catalyst system gave good to excellent yields. The effective palladium loading could be as low as 0.0001 mol% and 0.01-0.1 mol% for iodide and bromide substrates, respectively. The coupling of unactivated aromatic chlorides with arylboronic acids also gave good results using Cs₂CO₃ as base with a 2 mol% palladium loading. The electronic factors from aromatic halides exert a significant influence on the Suzuki coupling catalyzed by the PdCl₂-2 system while the electronic effect from the arylboronic counterparts is negligible. The aromatic halides with modest steric hindrance could also couple smoothly with phenylboronic acids using the PdCl₂-2 catalyst system.