Palladium complexes with chiral imidazole ligands as potential catalysts for asymmetric CC coupling reactions

Two palladium complexes of the type [Pd(im)2Cl2] containing chiral imidazole ligands (im = 1-bornyloxymethylene imidazole, 1-fenchyloxymethylyne imidazole) were synthesized and structurally characterized. These complexes are highly active catalysts of Suzuki-Miyaura, carbonylative Suzuki-Miyaura, asymmetric Heck-type coupling reactions and asymmetric conjugate addition of phenylboronic acid to heterocyclic acceptors.