Activation of C–H Activation: The Beneficial Effect of Catalytic Amount of Triaryl Boranes on Palladium-Catalyzed C–H Activation, Orsolya Tischler, Zsófia Bokányi, Zoltán Novák, Organometallics 2016, 35, 741-746. DOI: 10.1021/acs.organomet.5b01017 | [Full Text Link] [Supp. Info. Link]

Herein we report a novel approach to the acceleration of palladium-catalyzed C–H activation reactions. We demonstrated that the utilization of electron-deficient triaryl boranes as Lewis acidic cocatalysts of palladium enables the directed cross dehydrogenative coupling of aldehydes and anilides under mild reaction conditions. Study of the kinetic profile of the transformation reveals a unique, unexpectedly long induction period of the transformation.