Solvent-free, microwave-assisted highly efficient, rapid and simple synthesis of biphenyl compounds by using silica based Pd(II) catalyst

To maintain catalytic performance of any catalyst for a long time, the selection of support material is a very important parameter for heterogeneous catalytic systems, and this performance makes the catalyst valuable. In view of its low cost and availability, silica can be considered as a good support material for transition metal ions in the cross coupling reactions. Therefore, this study describes i) silica-gel based palladium catalyst with a long-term catalytic performance, ii) rapid, simple, economic, and green procedure which was developed for Suzuki reactions. The catalyst showed superior reusability (ten runs) and catalytic efficiency against coupling reactions under mild conditions (50 degrees C, 5min and air atmosphere). Moreover, the catalyst gave partially good reaction yields with aril chlorides which have poor activity in coupling reactions. In addition, an excellent turnover number (TON: 66000) and frequency (TOF: 825000) were obtained using very small catalyst loading (1.5 x 10(-3) mol %). This paper concludes that silica-gel based Pd(II) catalyst and the protocol of synthesis of biaryls were suitable for coupling reactions.