Fluorous-silica-supported perfluoro-tagged palladium complexes catalyze Suzuki couplings in water

Different Pd-complexes (see 2a-d and 3) with and without perfluoroalkyl tags were deposited on fluorous reversed-phase silica I and unmodified silica gel. These supported complexes were successfully used as precatalysts for the Suzuki reaction in H2O. H2O-Soluble aryl bromides were easily converted to the corresponding biphenyls. Although none of the complexes is MO-soluble, the active catalyst is most likely homogeneously dissolved. Nevertheless, the Pd-leaching into the product was low.