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Nucleophilic N-heterocyclic carbenes have been conveniently used as catalyst modifiers in amination reactions involving aryl chlorides, aryl bromides, and aryl iodides with various nitrogen-containing substrates. The scope of a coupling process using a Pd(0) or Pd(II) source and an imidazolium salt in the presence of a base, KO(t)Bu or NaOH, was tested using various substrates. The Pd(2)(dba)(3)/IPr.HCl (1, IPr = 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene) system presents the highest activity with respect to electron-neutral and electron-rich aryl chlorides. The ligand is also effective for the synthesis of benzophenone imines, which can be easily converted to the corresponding primary amines by acid hydrolysis. Less reactive indoles were converted to N-aryl-substituted indoles using as supporting ligand the more donating SIPr.HCl (5, SIPr = 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)-4,5-dihydroimidazol-2-ylidene). The Pd(OAc)(2)/SIPr.HCl/NaOH system is efficient for the N-arylation of diverse indoles with aryl bromides. The general protocol developed has been applied successfully to the synthesis of a key intermediate in the synthesis of an important new antibiotic. Mechanistically, palladium-to-ligand ratio studies strongly support an active species bearing one nucleophilic carbene ligand.

[reaction: see text] Imidazol-2-ylidenes, a family of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC), are efficient catalysts in the transesterification between esters and alcohols. Low catalyst loadings of aryl- or alkyl-substituted NHC catalysts mediate the acylation of alcohols with vinyl acetate in convenient reaction times at room temperature. Commercially available and more difficult to cleave methyl esters react with numerous alcohols in the presence of alkyl-substituted NHC to form efficiently the corresponding esters in very short reaction times.

[structure: see text]. A Pd(OAc)2/diazabutadiene system has been developed for the catalytic cross-coupling of aryl halides with arylboronic acids. A combination of the diazabutadiene DAB-Cy (1, N,N'-dicyclohexyl-1,4-dizabutadiene) and Pd(OAc)2 was found to form an excellent catalyst for the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of various aryl bromides and activated aryl chlorides with arylboronic acids.

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