Question

Consider the appended paper that discusses the mechanism of the palladium-catalysed carbonylation of 4-iodoanisole A to afford ethyl 4-methoxybenzoate B shown below (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 3153-3158) and answer ALL the following parts (i) to (v).  

How is the palladium(II) pre-catalyst reduced to Pd(0) in this carbonylation (your answer should include a description of the fundamental steps).

 Propose a structure for the pre-catalyst generated from the reaction between PdCl2(MeCN)2 and (E)-3-(2)-(diphenylphosphino)-1-phenyl-prop-2-en-1-one (L1) and suggest what spectroscopic methods would be most suitable for its characterisation and explain why.  

Answer 1

Palladium acetate is not water-soluble; it is organic soluble. Although Sigma-Aldrich does not test solubility of 520764 directly, it is expected to be soluble in most common organic solvents, like chloroform, methylene chloride and acetone, according to the manufacturer.