Abstract: The possibility of carrying out a purely heterogeneous Heck reaction in practice without Pd leaching has been previously considered by a number of research groups but no general consent has yet arrived. Here, the reaction was, for the first time, evaluated by a simple computational approach. Modelling experiments were performed on one of the initial catalytic steps: phenyl halides attachment on Pd (111) to (100) and (111) to (111) ridges of a Pd crystal. Three surface structures of resulting [PhPdX] were identified as possible reactive intermediates. Following potential energy minimisation calculations based on a universal force field, the relative stabilities of these surface species were then determined. Results showed the most stable species to be one in which a Pd ridge atom is removed from the Pd crystal structure, suggesting Pd leaching induced by phenyl halides is energetically favourable.

Key words: Heterogeneous Heck reaction, Aryl halides, Computational, Modelling, Leaching of palladium