Role of TMEDA in Iron-Catalyzed Coupling Reactions

Significance

Iron-catalyzed cross-coupling ­reactions are an active area of research due to the non-toxicity of iron relative to other commonly used transition metals. However, an understanding of the mechanistic processes underlying these reactions is still unclear. In the present paper, the authors study the effect of TMEDA on the cross-coupling reactions of ArMgX with alkyl halides. Based on X-ray structures of tetrahedral com­plexes 1 and 2 and radical clock experiments, the authors have proposed a possible catalytic cycle for this reaction.