Perking up the Suzuki reaction with Co-Fe

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The Suzuki reaction is a powerful tool for the production of new carbon-carbon bonds and is exploited industrially, for instance in the synthesis of intermediates for the sartan class of drugs for treating high blood pressure and in the production of agrochemical fungicides. Despite its high utility, the Suzuki reaction suffers from the need to use palladium-based catalysts. Palladium is expensive, relatively toxic and its extraction environmentally impacting. In this research, we will produce new classes of homogeneous catalysts based on the far cheaper, more benign and sustainable metal iron and cobalt. In particular we will focus on the development of catalysts that are capable of C(sp2)-C(sp2) bond-formation as these have proven to be particularly challenging to achieve with first row transition metal-based catalysts, yet are of particular interest to potential industrial end-users.