Soluble polymer-supported catalysts containing azo dyes.

[structure: see text] Azo benzene derivatives were incorporated into soluble polymer-bound catalysts by two different approaches. The first was to attach the dye to the polymer-bound catalysts, using the dye as an innocent spectator to study the phase preference, concentration, and recoverability of a catalyst. The second approach used an azo dye as a ligand to form an effective soluble polymer-bound Pd(II) catalyst for Heck reactions.