A simple access to palladium complexes of functionalized heterocyclic carbenes

Methylation of 2-(1-imidazolyl)cyclohexanol (1a) and of the acylated derivative 1b using CH3I gives the corresponding imidazolium iodides 2a,b. These are reacted with Pd(OAc)2 to yield the carbene complexes trans-L2PdI2 (3a,b) bearing functionalized heterocyclic carbene ligands, which have been characterized spectroscopically and by X-ray structure analysis.