Phosphino-Triazole Ligands for Palladium-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling

Twelve 1,5-disubtituted and fourteen 5-substituted 1,2,3-triazole derivatives bearing diaryl or dialkyl phosphines at the 5-position were synthesized and used as ligands for palladium-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions. Bulky substrates were tested, and lead-like product formation was demonstrated. The online tool SambVca2.0 was used to assess steric parameters of ligands and preliminary buried volume determination using XRD-obtained data in a small number of cases proved to be informative. Two modeling approaches were compared for the determination of the buried volume of ligands where XRD data was not available. An approach with imposed steric restrictions was found to be superior in leading to buried volume determinations that closely correlate with observed reaction conversions. The online tool LLAMA was used to determine lead-likeness of potential Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling products, from which 10 of the most lead-like were successfully synthesized. Thus, confirming these readily accessible triazole-containing phosphines as highly suitable ligands for reaction screening and optimization in drug discovery campaigns.