A versatile and efficient palladium-meta-terarylphosphine catalyst for the copper-free sonogashira coupling of (hetero-)aryl chlorides and alkynes

A novel meta-terarylphosphine ligand, Cy∗Phine, was developed and found to be a highly active promoter of copper-free Sonogashira cross-coupling reactions when combined in situ with a palladium source. The evolutionary m-terarylphosphine ligand architecture was able to impose significant performance advantages over its biarylphosphine congeners. An expedient and versatile protocol was also devised with an emphasis on substrates applicable to the fine-chemicals industry by featuring a diverse range of challenging, electronrich aryl chlorides and terminal alkynes. The Pd-Cy∗Phine catalyst was able to deliver products in excellent yields with efficient substrate utilization, which minimizes the generation of commonly formed byproducts, and the reaction is tolerant of a variety of substrates with unprotected functional groups.