Abstract

After a short description of the achievements of the threeNobel laureates, R&D issues for the application of Pd couplingreactions in the fine chemicals industry are discussed. In a firstpart, some background is given on industrial R&D and therole of coupling for preparative applications is described.Thematic approaches to industrial R&D are described andtwo of these are illustrated with relevant examples from theliterature and from our own laboratories: i) Development ofcatalytic systems with very high turnover numbers; ii) Catalystsand ligands for coupling reactions with aryl chlorides. Finally,four selected Pd catalyzed production processes are briefly described.