This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the progress in palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions, with an emphasis on how ligand characteristics affect the chemoselectivity of aryl (pseudo)halides.

Tosyloxy- and mesyloxyflavones derived from abundant and biologically important hydroxyflavones were used to synthesize a series of functionalized flavones through versatile palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. A Pd(OAc)2/2-[2-(dicyclohexylphosphino)phenyl]-1-methyl-1H-indole system effectively catalyzed the reactions of a broad range of tosyloxy- and mesyloxyflavones as electrophilic coupling partners with various nucleophiles to give the corresponding products in good to excellent yields. Catalyst loadings of as little as 0.1 mol% Pd were successfully used. Importantly, we demonstrated that this protocol provided a significantly improved efficiency in the synthesis of a potential chromen-4-one-based analogue of a potent inhibitor of DNA-dependent protein kinase.