1. State Key Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu, P. R. China;2. Key Laboratory of Organic Synthesis of Jiangsu Province College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, P. R. China;3. Department of Sciences, John Jay College and The Graduate Center The City University of New York, New York, NY, USA
Abstract:
For conventional cross‐couplings in organic chemistry, precious metal (such as Pd or Rh) complexes have been the preferable choices as catalysts. However, their high cost, toxicity, and potential contamination of products limit their massive applications on some occasions, particularly in the pharmaceutical industry, where close monitoring of the metal contamination of products is required. Therefore, the use of metals that are less expensive and less toxic than Pd or Rh can be greatly advantageous and earth abundant metal (such Fe or Cu) catalysts have shown promise for replacing the precious metals. Interestingly, a certain copper catalyst combined with an iron catalyst displays higher catalytic efficiency than itself in various coupling reactions. Notably, ligand‐free conditions make such protocols more useful and practical in many cases. In this account, we summarize the recent progress made in this increasingly attractive topic by describing successful examples, including our own work in the literature, regarding effective copper/iron cocatalysis. In addition, a few examples involving a magnetic and readily recyclable CuFe2O4 nanoparticle cocatalyst are also included.
