Any Old Iron? Any Old Iron?

Most chemists automatically turn to expensive palladium catalysts when faced with a cross coupling reaction, but removal of palladium residues from the product can be a major issue for large scale processes. A number of academic groups have recently published cross-coupling procedures using iron catalysts, of Grignard reagents with alkyl halides, and these look to have great potential for scale-up, as well as being more environmentally friendly.
The group of Cossy at CNRS, Paris has recently reported that FeCl3 in the presence of TMEDA is a good catalyst for these cross-coupling procedures, and that a wide range of functional groups are tolerated. (Angew Chem Int Ed, 2007, 46, 6521-6524).



Trevor Laird