A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new method of limiting the use of boronic acid in coupling reactions with palladium catalysts

During coupling reactions, chemists can often overuse boronic acid, despite it being the most expensive reagent involved in experiments when selecting catalysts and determining limiting agents.

The team led by Timothy Barder and Stephen Buchwald have developed a method of using an ultraviolet dye in the reaction to show when enough boronic acid has been used.

During tests a palladium catalyst was used to join 1-butyl-4-chlorobenzene and o-tolylboronic acid.

Dennis Hall, chemistry professor at the University of Alberta, told Chemical and Engineering News: "Quick-and-easy detection of boronic acids using the bench chemist's traditional methods like thin-layer chromatography is rendered difficult by the polar nature of these compounds.

"Barder and Buchwald have developed a carefully optimized assay that truly seems reliable and convenient for the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reaction, a transformation of prime importance in drug discovery efforts and natural product synthesis."

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