Chemical industries are greatly assisted by catalysts; and commonly used catalysts for C-C formation
reactions are mainly phosphine-based complexes which are air and moisture sensitive. New air stable
Schiff base Pd(II) complexes have been synthesised, characterised and screened for their catalytic potential.
This paper reports three ONNO Schiff bases, namely, L2C [2,2’-((1E,1’E)-((2,2-dimethylpropane-1,3-
diyl) bis (azanylylidene)) bis (methanylylidene)-) bis (4-chlorophenol)], L2M [2,2’-((1E,1’E)-((2,2-
dimethylpropane-1,3-diyl)bis(azanylyli-dene)) bis (methanylylidene)) bis (4-methylphenol)] and L2H
[2,2’-((1E,1’E) - ((2,2-dimethyl-propane-1,3-diyl) bis (azanylylidene)) bis (methanylylidene)) diphenol].
These were synthesised from 2,2-dimethyl-1,3-propanediamine and salicylaldehyde derivatives with Cl,
CH3 and H at the meta position, respectively. The compounds were reacted with palladium(II) acetate
yielding three palladium(II) complexes denoted as PdL2C, PdL2M and PdL2H. The structures of all
compounds were elucidated through elemental analysis, 1
H and 13C NMR, FTIR and melting point. The
complexes were screened for catalytic activities in Sonogashira coupling reaction between iodobenzene
and phenylacetylene in DMSO. PdL2H was found to be the most active catalyst with 87% iodobenzene
conversion after 12 hours of reaction.