Impregnated palladium on magnetite, a new catalyst for the ligand-free cross-coupling Suzuki-Miyaura reaction

A new catalyst for the cross-coupling Suzuki-Miyaura reaction is reported. The impregnated palladium on magnetite catalyst is very easy to prepare using the standard impregnation methodology. This catalyst avoids the use of any type of expensive and difficult handle organic ligand, showing excellent yields, under mild reaction conditions, for the classical formation of biaryl compounds. The catalyst is very easy to remove from the reaction medium, only by using a simple magnet, and it could be re-used up to three times with only a slightly decrease of the chemical yield.