Abstract
M.Sc. (Chemistry)
Palladium-mediated carbon-earbon (and carbon-heteroatom) bond formation! is to an
increasing extent playing a vital role in synthetic organic chemistry. The chemistry is
usually performed under mild conditions, with the organopal1adium intermediates being
formed in situ from inorganic palladium salts or complexes, and has good tolerance of
functionality on the substrates. The palladium mediator may be present in the reaction in
amounts ranging from stoichiometric to catalytic.
Reactions requiring stoichiometric amounts of palladium may appear to be inherently
uneconomical. Palladium, however, may be easily recovered in most cases, and may be
converted into salts useful for catalysis, effectively offsetting the initial expense. 2 The use
of polymer-bound palladium catalysts! has also been shown to be a viable method of
palladium recovery.
Palladium may form a- or 1r-eomplexes with organic compounds and, as with many other
transition-metal complexes, a-palladium complexes are generally only stable in the
presence of select ligands. Arylphosphines are most commonly used, and of these triphenylphosphine
is the ligand of choice for its availability and low cost...