Palladium-catalyzed formation of secondary and tertiary amines from aryl dihalides with air-stable ferrocenyl tri- and diphosphines: Synthesis and X-ray structure of efficient catalysts beyond [PdCl2(DPPF)]

•Pd triphosphine catalyst for C–N bond formation of functionalized secondary amines•Pd diphosphine catalyst for C–N bond formation of functionalized tertiary amines•Convenient procedure for selective monoamination of aryl dihalides at 1 mol% Pd•Air-stable and commercial (or easily made) ferrocenylphosphines ligands•X-ray of a Pd(II) pre-catalyst for a new ferrocenyldiphosphine ligand

Robust, air-stable tridentate and bidentate ferrocenylphosphines 1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)-1′-(diisopropylphosphino)-4-tert-butylferrocene, L5, and 1,1′-bis(diisopropylphosphino)-3,3′-bis(tert-butyl)ferrocene, L9, combined with 1 mol% of [PdCl(η3-C3H5)]2 led to two new catalytic systems which allow the coupling of aniline derivatives with mono- and dihaloarenes to form functionalized diarylamines and triarylamines. The excellent selectivity of the reactions avoids the deleterious dehalogenation of the substrates and products. The X-ray structure characterization of the related complex [PdCl2(L9)] is reported in which ligand L9 in its meso form is significantly distorted.

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