Direct (Hetero)arylation of Heteroarenes Catalyzed by Unsymmetrical Pd-PEPPSI-NHC Complexes under Mild Conditions

With the aim of developing a facile and efficient method to access structurally intriguing and valuable functionalized (hetero)aryls, two unsymmetrical Pd-PEPPSI-type NHC complexes (PEPPSI, pyridine-enhanced precatalyst preparation, stabilization, and initiation; NHC, N-heterocyclic carbene) were designed and synthesized to catalyze the direct arylation of heteroarenes with (hetero)aryl bromides. The results demonstrated that the utilization of this "unsymmetrical" strategy led to much higher efficiency in comparison to the commonly used C2-symmetric Pd-PEPPSI-type NHC complexes. Furthermore, a broad range of heteroaromatics and (hetero)aryl bromide partners with a wide variety of functional groups were all amenable to the developed protocol even at as low as 0.05 mol % catalyst loading and under aerobic conditions. More importantly, along with our study, we also found that the present protocol could provide expedient access to the gram-scale synthesis of the muscle relaxant drug dantrolene and conjugated mesopolymers.