Palladium Acetate/[CPy][Br]: An Efficient Catalytic System towards the Synthesis of Biologically Relevant Stilbene Derivatives via Heck Cross-Coupling Reaction.

The main objective of this study was to replace the traditionally applicable volatile organic solvents and imidazolium-based ionic liquid solvents with thermally stable surfactant, cetylpyridinium bromide as surfactant ionic liquid (SIL) and examine the potential of the same as viable reaction medium in the synthesis of stilbenes, quinoxaline and pyridone decorated substrates via Heck cross-coupling reaction. This work thoroughly investigates the thermal, spectral and morphological properties of cetylpyridinium bromide as surfactant ionic liquid. Cetylpyridinium bromide is a well-known germicide with well-established degradation mechanism and displays remarkable solvent properties for the homogeneously catalysed Heck cross-coupling reactions, which is of great significance to enlarge the applications window of cetylpyridinium bromide from biologically significant surfactant material to the choice of solvent in synthetic organic chemistry.