Guiyan Liu

Decarboxylative acylation of arenes with mandelic acid derivatives via palladium-catalyzed oxidative sp2 C–H activation

An efficient palladium catalyzed decarboxylative acylation of arenes with mandelic acid derivatives via oxidative sp2 C–H activation in the presence of tert-butyl hydroperoxide has been developed. The acylation reaction is assisted by a pyridine directing group. The starting materials are inexpensive and readily available. This method provides an economical and convenient way to synthesize aryl ketones.

A highly active and recyclable homogeneous NHC–palladium catalyst with pH- and light-sensitive tags for the Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reactions of aryl halides with arylboronic acids

The design and synthesis of a stable, highly active, and recyclable homogeneous palladium catalyst for Suzuki–Miyaura coupling reactions is of great interest. A well-defined N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) Pd(II) complex with pH- and light-sensitive nitrobenzospiropyran (SP) tags has been synthesized in good yields via a series of simple steps. This complex is a homogeneous catalyst which has excellent reactivities for the Suzuki–Miyaura coupling of aryl bromides and aryl chlorides with arylboronic acids. Significantly, at a low loading (0.2 mol%), this catalyst has very good recyclability in an i-PrOH–H2O solvent system (1 : 1 v/v), under mild conditions. By making use of the pH- and light-sensitive SP tags, the catalyst can be recovered and reused seven times.

Synthesis of (Ph 3 P) 2 PdX 2 Complexes and Their Catalytic Activity for Heck Reaction Involving Aryl Halide and Acrylate

Two palladium complexes, (Ph3P)2PdBr2 and (Ph3P)2PdI2, were synthesized by a new method and their structures were confirmed by NMR, elemental analysis and X-ray crystallography. The catalytic activity of the two palladium complexes was evaluated in Mizoroki-Heck cross-coupling reaction of aryl halide with acrylate, the results show that they all have high catalytic activity to many different substrates.