Amine-Catalysed Suzuki–Miyaura-Type Coupling? the Identification and Isolation of the Palladium Culprits.

A recent report in Nature Catalysis detailed the potentially paradigm-shifting organocatalysis of Suzuki cross-coupling of aryl halides with aryl boronic acids, catalysed by simple amine species. We have conducted a reinvestigation of key claims in this paper across multiple academic and industrial laboratories that shows that the observed catalytic activity cannot be due to the amine, but rather is due to tricyclohexylphosphine palladium complexes that are readily entrained during the purification of the amine.