Phosphine-free Suzuki cross-coupling reaction: a mild and selective method for the carbon–carbon bond formation in aqueous tea extract

A mild and selective protocol has been developed for the palladium-catalyzed phosphine-free Suzuki cross-coupling reaction of aryl bromides with arylboronic acids in aqueous tea extract at room temperature. It is noteworthy that the aqueous tea extract plays an important role in the reaction, and various functional groups are tolerated under the optimized conditions. The reactions proceeded with very good chemoselectivity in favor of the bromo instead of the chloro group even at higher temperatures. Furthermore, this protocol could be applied to the cross-coupling of 4-bromoindole without protecting the base sensitive amine group with arylboronic acids in moderate to excellent yields.