Synthesis and Catalysis of NHC Coordinated Cyclometalated Palladium(II) Complexes with Bridging Hydroxide Ligands.

1,2‐Addition reactions using organoboron compounds are one of the useful syntheses of various functionalized alcohols, but they generally require a large quantity of bases. In this study, we attempted to solve this problem by synthesizing unsymmetrical 1,3‐diarylimidazoline‐type N‐heterocyclic carbene (NHC)‐coordinated C^C* cyclometalated palladium(II) complexes with bridging hydroxide ligands (CYPOHs) in two steps and one pot from the corresponding Cl bridged dimer and using them as catalysts. 2,6‐di(pentan‐3‐yl)aniline (IPent)‐based NHC coordinated PhS‐IPent‐CYPOH acted as a highly efficient catalyst for the 1,2‐addition of (hetero)arylboronates to a large number of aldehydes and ketones, including unactivated ketones, under base‐free conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]