3D printed tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium (0) impregnated stirrer devices for Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reactions

Abstract

3D printed materials can be readily modified to create bespoke structures that incorporate a range of catalysts at the point of printing. In this present study we report on the design and 3D printing of tetrakis (triphenylphosphine) palladium (0) impregnated 3D printed stirrer devices that were used to catalyze a Suzuki–Miyaura reaction between biaryl compounds in a batch-based approach. It was shown that the 3D printed devices themselves are stable to solvent, reusable, easy to use, air-stable, give access to an array of biaryl compounds in excellent yields and lead to low levels of palladium loss into the reaction. Simple modification of the device's design by size reduction, meant that they could also be used to reduce the time of the Suzuki–Miyaura reaction by microwave enhanced heating. At the end of the reaction, devices can simply be removed from the flask, washed and reused, analogous to stirrer bead workflows. This makes the overall process of setting up multiple reactions simpler by obviating the need to weigh out catalysts for reactions and the device, once used, can be simply removed from the reaction media at the end of the reaction.