Nickel (II) acetate tetrahydrate and triphenylphosphine in heck coupling / Noorsidah Md Yusoff

Stilbenes are known to have important biological actrvrties and various therapeutic properties. Because of the minute amount in plants and the increasing demand for it, stilbene analogues are synthesized in the laboratory by using Heck reaction. Heck reaction is palladium-catalyzed C-C coupling between aryl halides and activated alkenes in the presence of a base. Due to high-cost of palladium, nickel (II) acetate tetrahydrate which was relatively very cheap compared to palladium was used as a catalyst in this research. As claimed by other researchers, nickel has a higher activity in Heck reaction although palladium was known to be the most active catalyst. Therefore, this research was aimed to synthesize stilbene analogue by using Heck reaction and also to observe the efficacy of nickel (11) acetate tetrahydrate in terms of the amount and the temperature that are required to be used for the reaction. This research was carried out in two established reactions. The first reaction was to produce protected 4-iodophenol, 4-iodoanisole by using iodomethane. The successfully synthesized 4-iodoanisole was not used in the next step due to small amount and hence, was not enough to be consumed in the next reaction, the Heck reaction. The second reaction was to produce the stilbene analogue, trans-4, 12-dimethoxystilbene by using commercially available 4- iodoanisole and 4-methoxystyrene. However, due to some reasons the stilbene analogue was not able to be synthesized. Instead, an unknown compound which was not able to be identified has been synthesized in small amount.