On the mechanism of palladium-catalyzed coupling of haloaryls to biaryls in water with zinc

[reaction: see text] Kinetics and process parameters of coupling and hydro-dehalogenation reactions of chloroaryls are studied in the presence of zinc, water, and catalytic Pd/C. Good yields are obtained for the coupling of chlorobenzene, 4-chlorotoluene, and 4-chloro-1,1,1-trifluorotoluene. It is shown that water is actually one of the reagents, reacting with zinc in the presence of palladium to give zinc oxide and hydrogen gas, which then regenerates the Pd0 catalyst for the coupling reaction.