Comparison between polyethylenglycol and imidazolium ionic liquids as solvents for developing a homogeneous and reusable palladium catalytic system for the Suzuki and Sonogashira coupling

The carbapalladacycle complex of 4-hydroxyacetophenone oxime is a highly active palladium catalyst to effect the Suzuki coupling of aryl chlorides and other C-C forming reactions in water. In an attempt to develop a reusable, homogeneous system based on this complex, its stability against prolonged heating in different ionic liquids and polyethylenglycol (PEG) has been studied. It was found that the palladium complex decomposes in water, 1-butyl-1-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate and 1-butyl-1-methylimidazolium chloride to form palladium nanoparticles in the first two cases and PdCl₄²⁻ in the third case. In contrast, this cyclic palladium complex was stable upon extended heating in 1-butyl-2,3-dimethylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate and in PEG. The activity of this complex for the Suzuki and Sonogashira correlates with the stability of the complex, the activity in PEG being higher than any of the ionic liquids tested. Although the carbapalladacycle complex also decomposes in PEG upon reaction, the resulting Pd nanoparticles (2-5 nm size) are stabilized by PEG acting as ligand. In this way, a reusable, homogeneous system in PEG has been developed that is able to effect the Suzuki and Sonogashira couplings without the need of copper and phosphorous ligands, working at the open air.