Buchwald–Hartwig amination of chloroheteroarenes has been a challenging synthetic process, with very few protocols promoting this important transformation at ambient temperature. The current report discusses about an efficient copper-based catalytic system (Cu/PTABS) for the amination of chloroheteroarenes at ambient temperature in water as the sole reaction solvent, a combination that is first to be reported. A wide variety of chloroheteroarenes could be coupled efficiently with primary and secondary amines as well as selected amino acid esters under mild reaction conditions. Catalytic efficiency of the developed protocol also promotes late-stage functionalization of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) such as antibiotics (floxacins) and anticancer drugs. The catalytic system also performs efficiently at a very low concentration of 0.0001 mol % (TON = 980,000) and can be recycled 12 times without any appreciable loss in activity. Theoretical calculations reveal that the π-acceptor ability of the ligand PTABS is the main reason for the appreciably high reactivity of the catalytic system. Preliminary characterization of the catalytic species in the reaction was carried out using UV–VIS and ESR spectroscopy, providing evidence for the Cu­(II) oxidation state.

Commercially available Quadrol, N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(2-hydroxypropyl)ethylenediamine (THPEN), has been used for the first time as N^N- donor neutral hydrophilic ligand in the synthesis and characterization of new water soluble palladium (II) complexes...

The synthesis and characterization of new water-soluble dinuclear palladacycles of the general formula [{Pd­(R-C^N-SO3Na)­(μ-AcO)}2] (R = H (1), OMe (2), Cl (3)) incorporating an ortho-metalated sodium 4-(N-benzylideneamino)­benzenesulfonate moiety is reported. These complexes have been revealed to be excellent phosphine-free catalysts for the synthesis of functionalized nucleoside analogues involving a low-temperature Suzuki–Miyaura coupling of 5-iodo-2′-deoxyuridine with different arylboronic acids in neat water. The potential of 1–3 as synthetic precursors was also tested, and bridging acetates were cleaved by reaction with neutral PPh3, yielding the corresponding mononuclear derivatives [Pd­(R-C^N-SO3Na)­(AcO)­(PPh3)] (R = H (4), MeO (5), Cl (6)). Analytical and spectroscopic techniques confirmed the proposed formulas and reactivities reported for complexes 1–6. Structural characterization by X-ray diffraction of single crystals grown from samples of 4 and 6 produced the unexpected but valuable crystallization-mediated compounds 4cm and 6cm that also supported the results presented here.