Facile route to dihydroindacene type ligands using multiple Heck reactions on aryl polybromides

The Heck reaction of aryl dibromides and n-butyl acrylate catalyzed by Pd(OAc)2/P(t-Bu)3 is a high yielding method to produce intermediates for dihydroindacene type ligands. The same synthetic strategy, extended to tribromides, represents a simple route also to tridentate ligands potentially useful in the stabilization of trimeric metal complexes and clusters.