Palladium-catalysed Grignard cross-coupling using highly concentrated Grignards in methyl-tetrahydrofuran

The cross-coupling of Grignard reagents at 5 molar concentration in methyl-tetrahydrofuran with no added reaction solvents can be achieved with the appropriate matching of catalyst to substrate, significantly reducing solvent use when compared to a typical protocol in tetrahydrofuran. Me-THF was also used in an improved microwave accelerated synthesis of the [Pd(L)Cl2] pre-catalysts from sodium tetrachloropalladate in very high yield.