Pyridines and pyrimidines have shown good complexation properties for palladium and have been employed in the formation of catalysts suitable for Sonogashira couplings. The dipyrimidyl-palladium complex shown below has been employed in the copper-free coupling of iodo-, bromo-, and chlorobenzene with phenylacetylene using N-butylamine as base in THF solvent at 65 °C. Furthermore, all structural features of this complex have been characterized by extensive X-ray analysis, verifying the observed reactivity.
More recently, the dipyridylpalladium complex has been obtained and has been used in the copper-free Sonogashira coupling reaction of aryl iodides and bromides in N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) using tetra-n-butylammonium acetate (TBAA) as base at room temperature. This complex has also been used for the coupling of aryl iodides and bromides in refluxing water as solvent and in the presence of air, using pyrrolidine as base and TBAB as additive, although its efficiency was higher in N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP) as solvent.