Abstract

After a short description of the achievements of thethree Nobel laureates, R&D issues for the application ofPd coupling reactions in the fine chemicals industry arediscussed. In a first part, some background is given onindustrial R&D and the role of coupling for preparativeapplications is described. Thematic approaches toindustrial R&D are described and two of these are illustratedwith relevant examples from the literature and from ourown laboratories: i) Development of catalytic systems withvery high turnover numbers; ii) Catalysts and ligands forcoupling reactions with aryl chlorides. Finally, four selectedPd catalyzed production processes are briefly described.