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Bulky triarylphosphite ligands undergo facile orthometallation reactions with palladium and platinum precursors. The crystal structure of an example of the resultant palladacycles has been determined. The reactivity of some of the metallacycles with HCl, monodentate and bidentate phosphines and sodium diethyldithiocarbamate has been investigated, and the crystal structure of a diethyldithiocarbamate adduct of a palladacycle is presented. The palladacyclic complexes prove to be extremely active catalysts for the Suzuki coupling of aryl bromides with aryl boronic acids. They can also be used as catalysts for the coupling of alkylboronic acids. Meanwhile di- and trialkyl phosphine adducts of one of the palladacycles shows very high activity in the Suzuki coupling of aryl chlorides and can also be used to good effect for the Stille coupling of these substrates. The role of the phosphite ligand in the Suzuki coupling of aryl chlorides seems to be one of increasing catalyst longevity by stabilisation of the Pd(0) resting state.

The orthometalated complex [{Pd(μ-Cl){κ2-P,C-P(OC6H2-2,4-tBu2)(OC6H3-2,4-tBu2)2}}2] reacts with phenylboronic acid hydrate and K2CO3 in dimethylacetamide to give [Pd{κ2-P,C-μ2-O-P(O)(C6H2-2,4-tBu2)(C6H3-2,4-tBu2)(DMAc)}]. When the reaction is repeated in dimethylformamide 3,3‘,5,5‘-tetra-tert-butyl-2,2‘-biphenol is isolated. Both compounds have been characterized crystallographically. The reaction of palladium dichloride with PiPr2(OC6H4-4-Et) in 2-methoxyethanol followed by recrystallization in the presence of ethanol leads to the formation of trans-[PdCl2{PiPr2(OEt)}2], which was also characterized by crystallography. To determine whether related solvolytic processes have a bearing on catalytic activity, the performance of a range of catalysts with “hydrolyzed” and “nonhydrolyzed” ligands was assessed in the Suzuki coupling of aryl bromides. In some cases it was evident that hydrolysis plays a significant role on the catalytic activity; however, this depends not only on the ligand, but also on the combination of ligand and palladium precursor.

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The incorporation of a new pi-acidic, orthometallated phosphite ligand into a palladium pre-catalyst gives considerably enhanced catalyst longevity and thus extremely high activity in the Suzuki coupling of deactivated, activated and sterically hindered aryl chloride substrates.