Palladium-Catalyzed Biaryl Coupling Using PEPPSI Under Aqueous Microwave Conditions
This is a lab that gives students a chance to use a catalyst to perform "green" chemistry. Specifically, they will make one of the new generation of palladium cross-coupling catalysts called PEPPSI, which is a highly active, water soluble catalyst and use it in a Suzuki coupling reaction. Student groups of 2 or 3 will synthesize an NHC ligand, incorporate it into a metal compound, and then perform catalysis in an aqueous microwave reaction using a variety of different reaction conditions in order to determine the optimal catalytic system.