Hydrazinoaminocarbene–palladium complexes as easily accessible and convenient catalysts for copper-free Sonogashira reactions

Two easily accessible hydrazinoaminocarbene complexes of Pd(II) are shown to be efficient catalysts for copper-free Sonogashira cross-couplings of a variety of aryl iodides with aryl- and alkylalkynes under mild conditions, in ethanol as the solvent and using potassium carbonate as the base. The reactions were carried out with 0.05 mol % of the catalysts which demonstrated exceptional stability in the solid state and in ethanol. Protection from air is not needed. Disubstituted acetylenes were synthesized by the general procedure on up to a gram scale and the yields were 80–98%.