Development of an aquacatalytic system based on the formation of vesicles of an amphiphilic palladium NNC-pincer complex.

Two amphiphilic palladium NNC-pincer complexes bearing hydrophilic tri(ethylene glycol) chains and hydrophobic dodecyl chains were designed and prepared for the development of a new aquacatalytic system. In water, these amphiphilic complexes self-assembled to form vesicles, the structures which were established by means of a range of physical techniques. When the catalytic activities of the vesicles were investigated in the arylation of terminal alkynes in water, they were found to catalyze the reaction of aryl iodides with terminal alkynes to give good yields of the corresponding internal alkynes. The formation of a vesicular structure was shown to be essential for efficient promotion of this reaction in water.