catalysts Review Microwave-Assisted Palladium-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions: Generation of Carbon–Carbon Bond Kifah S. M. Salih 1,* and Younis Baqi 2,* 1 Department of Chemistry and Earth Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713 Doha, Qatar 2 Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 36, Muscat 123, Oman * Correspondence:
[email protected] (K.S.M.S.);
[email protected] (Y.B.); Tel.: +974-4403-7552 (K.S.M.S.); +968-2414-1473 (Y.B.) Received: 1 November 2019; Accepted: 16 December 2019; Published: 18 December 2019 Abstract: Cross-coupling reactions furnishing carbon–carbon (C–C) bond is one of the most challenging tasks in organic syntheses. The early developed reaction protocols by Negishi, Heck, Kumada, Sonogashira, Stille, Suzuki, and Hiyama, utilizing palladium or its salts as catalysis have, for decades, attracted and inspired researchers affiliated with academia and industry. Tremendous efforts have been paid to develop and achieve more sustainable reaction conditions, such as the reduction in energy consumption by applying the microwave irradiation technique. Chemical reactions under controlled microwave conditions dramatically reduce the reaction time and therefore resulting in increase in the yield of the desired product by minimizing the formation of side products. In this review, we mainly focus on the recent advances and applications of palladium catalyzed cross-coupling carbon–carbon bond formation under microwave technology. Keywords: cross-coupling reaction; C–C bond formation; Pd catalysts; microwave 1. Introduction The formation of carbon-carbon (C–C) bond through cross-coupling reactions represents as one of the most powerful tools in synthetic organic chemistry, therefore many attempts to develop new procedures featuring the C–C bind formation are listed in the literature.