The Suzuki reaction is a versatile and powerful method for the synthesis of fine chemicals with a biaryl moiety through carbon–carbon bond formation. Great efforts have been made to increase the rate of the Suzuki reaction under mild conditions. Nevertheless, progress has been hindered by a number of bottle-neck problems, such as the activity of catalysts. Up to now, there has been little research into the influence of the atmosphere in which the Suzuki reaction takes place.

Chun Liu and co-workers at Dalian University of Technology, China, have demonstrated that the Pd/C-catalyzed Suzuki reaction in an ethanol/water mixed solvent is promoted by oxygen without the use of an additional ligand. The roles of the oxygen species and the carbon supports need to be further addressed in detail, but the team hopes that this will shed new light on the mechanism of the Suzuki reaction assisted by catalysts supported over functional carbon materials.

• Oxygen-promoted Palladium-on-Carbon-catalyzed Ligand-free Suzuki Reaction for the Synthesis of Heterobiaryls in Aqueous Media,
  Xiaofeng Rao, Chun Liu, Yang Xing, Yao Fu, Jieshan Qiu, Zilin Jin,
  Asian J. Org. Chem. 2013, 2, 514–518.
  DOI: 10.1002/ajoc.201300053