Tetranuclear Palladium Complexes of Abnormal N-Heterocyclic Carbene Ligands and their Catalytic Activities in Mizoroki-Heck Coupling Reaction of Electron-Rich Aryl Chlorides

Based on the ligand scaffold of an imidazolyl/benziimidazolyl moiety and a N-CH2C(=O)NHPh substituent, two series of ligand precursors with ortho hydroxy groups incorporated on the N-phenyl rings were prepared. The structural fine tuning of the ligand scaffold allowed the synthesis of tetranuclear palladium complexes with abnormal N-heterocyclic carbene (aNHC) ligands. For precursors with C2-methyl blocking groups, pyridine-assisted C-H bond activation led to the formation of mononuclear tridentate palladium aNHC complexes or tetranuclear complexes with tridentate CNO donors. Representative mononuclear and tetranuclearpalladium aNHC complexes were structurally characterized by X-ray diffraction studies, revealing very short Pd-C bond distances. The tetranuclear palladium aNHC complexes were very effective in catalyzing Mizoroki-Heck coupling reaction, and were capable of employing a range of aryl chlorides including deactivated substrates with low palladium loading of 0.2 mol%.