Highly Efficient Palladium-Catalyzed Boronic Acid Coupling Reactions in Water: Scope and Limitations

The "ligandless" palladium acetate-catalyzed Suzuki cross-coupling reaction of ArX with aryl- and vinylboronic acids in water without organic cosolvent in the presence of tetrabutylammonium bromide is reported. Aryl bromides give high yields and considerably accelerate the coupling. A wide variety of functional groups can be tolerated. Aryl iodides, however, give incomplete conversion and aryl triflate coupling shows no improvement over reported conditions.