Aqueous intramolecular Mizoroki–Heck reaction of (2-iodophenyl)(3-methyl-1H-indol-1-yl)methanone: a model reaction for the in situ performance evaluation of Pd catalysts

The regiospecific 5-exo intramolecular Mizoroki–Heck reaction of (2-iodophenyl)(3-methyl-1H-indol-1-yl)methanone is presented as a catalytic model reaction for the in situ performance evaluation of Pd catalysts for C–C cross-coupling reactions in aqueous medium. The reaction produces a conjugated cyclic compound which can be easily detected and quantified by UV-vis spectroscopy. Therefore, the reaction progress can be easily monitored and the catalytic parameters determined. The model reaction was tested using molecular and nanoparticulate catalysts, based on the Pd(OAc)2 salt.