Phthalide: a direct building-block towards P,O and P,N hemilabile ligands. Application in the palladium-catalysed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling of aryl chlorides.

The direct synthesis of new hemilabile ligands from the economical, readily available lactone phthalide is described. Pd-complexes of one such ligand were found highly effective in general Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions, including deactivated and hindered aryl chlorides.