Comprehensive kinetic screening of catalysts using reaction calorimetry

The protocol based on reaction calorimetry which is described in this paper offers a multidimensional kinetic and stability profile of a catalyst candidate in liquid and multiphase reactions. The scale-transparent picture of catalyst properties provided by this method should make it generally useful for rapid screening of candidates for catalytic process steps as well as for fundamental kinetic and mechanistic studies of organic reactions. In the example described here, new Pd complexes with nitrogen-based ligands were found to be more active than phosphapalladacycles in the Heck coupling of aryl halides with olefins.