Palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of potassium alkenyltrifluoroborates with organic halides in aqueous media.

Potassium vinyl and alkenyltrifluoroborates are cross-coupled with aryl and heteroaryl bromides using 1 mol % Pd loading of 4-hydroxyacetophenone oxime derived palladacycle or Pd(OAc)2 as precatalysts, K2CO3 as base, and TBAB as additive and water reflux under conventional or microwave heating to afford styrenes, stilbenoids, and alkenylbenzenes. These borates can be cross-coupled diastereoselectively with allyl and benzyl chlorides using KOH as base in acetone-water (3:2) at 50 degrees C and 0.1 mol % Pd loading, giving the corresponding 1,4-dienes and allylarenes, respectively. These simple phosphine-free reaction conditions allow the palladium recycling from the aqueous phase during up to five runs by extractive separation of the products, which contain 58-105 ppm of Pd.