$$\rightleftharpoonup{xx}$$
$$\longleftharp{xx}$$,
$$\longrightharp{xx}$$,
N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have attracted much attention, particularly for their ability to catalyze various important reactions such as metathesis, creation of furan, polymerization, hydrosilylation, hydrogenation, arylation, Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling and Mizoroki-Heck cross-coupling1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11. NHCs can be coupled with metals; such metal-NHC complexes have been extensively used in transition metal-catalyzed reactions as ancillary ligands and organocatalysts12,13,14,15,16. Generally, they are extraordinarily stable against air, moisture and heat as a consequence of the high dissociation energies of metal-carbon coordination bonds17.
Here, the protocols for the previously-shown synthesis and purification of four benzimidazolium salts (compounds 1-4) and their palladium NHC complexes (compounds 5-8, respectively) are detailed18. The salts and complexes were previously characterized using various techniques18. Since similar compounds are used for catalysis of arylation and Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions9,10,11, the protocols for testing the catalytic activity of the complexes in arylation and Suzuki-Miyaura reactions are also detailed. Importantly, the protocols for synthesizing, purifying and testing the catalytic activity of the complexes are presented general enough to allow easy adaptation to new palladium NHC complexes.