The synthesis of the ligands often involves the reaction between 1,3-dibromoethylbenzene with a secondary phosphine followed by deprotonation of the quaternary phosphorus intermediates to generate the ligand.
To generate the metal complex, two common routes are employed. One is a simple oxidative addition of the ipso-C-X bond where X = Br, I to a metal centre, often a M(0) (M = Pd, Mo, Fe, Ru, Ni, Pt) though other metal complexes with higher oxidation states available can also be used (e.g. Rh(COD)Cl).
The other significant method of metal introduction is through C-H bond activation., The major difference is that the metal used in this method is already in a higher oxidation state (e.g. PdCl – Pd(II) species). However, these reactions have been found to proceed much more efficiently by employing metal complexes with weakly-bound ligands (e.g. Pd(BF)(CHCN) or Pd(OTf)(CHCN) where OTf = FCOSO).