Solvent control of product diversity in palladium-catalyzed addition of arylboronic acid to aryl aldehydes

In Pd-catalyzed arylboronic acid addition to aryl aldehydes, the expected carbinol or asymmetrical ether can be obtained as the major product by altering aqueous solvent composition. Exploiting this methodology with 2-formylbiphenyls as reaction partner, a fluorene scaffold can be readily constructed in two steps.