Synthesis of palladacycles employing iminoisoindolines as monoanionic bidentate ligands

A series of air- and moisture-stable iminoisoindoline-based palladacycles have been prepared in two operationally simple steps from commercially available reagents. para-Substituted N,N'-diphenyliminoisoindoline ligands are easily synthesized from phthalaldehyde and para-substituted anilines and further reaction of the iminoisoindoline ligands with Pd(OAc)(2) in dichloromethane at room temperature results in formation of six-membered [C,N] dinuclear cyclopalladated complexes with the general formula [(iminoisoindoline)Pd(mu-OAc)](2). The resulting palladacyclic complexes were tested as precatalysts in Heck and Suzuki coupling reactions.