Phosphine-Free Aminocarbonylation Using Pd/DBU Catalyst: Carbonylative Coupling of Aryl Iodides and Amines

An improved carbonylation method allowing amide bond formation between aryl iodides and aromatic amines is presented. In contrast to usual methods based on Pd catalysis, this method does not require a phosphine ligand. The catalyst system simply employs bis(dibenzylideneacetone)palladium (0.5 mol %) and DBU (10 mol %). The method was applied to the synthesis of various aromatic amides from aryl iodides and amines, and was scaled to gram order synthesis under as low as 1 atm of carbon monoxide.