This review reports a series of mechanistic studies on Pd-catalyzed C-C cross-coupling reactions via density functional theory(DFT) calculations.A brief introduction of fundamental steps involved in these reactions is given,including oxidative addition,transmetallation and reductive elimination.We aim to provide an important review of recent progress on theoretical studies of palladium-catalyzed carbon-carbon cross-coupling reactions,including the C-C bond formation via C-H bond activation,decarboxylation,Pd(Ⅱ)/Pd(Ⅳ) catalytic cycle and double palladiums catalysis.
Nickel-and palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions have attracted wide attentions,while ligandcontrolled selectivity in these reactions are still elusive,and calculations can help obtain possible catalytic cycles to generate different products and provide insights into key factors of selectivity,which facilitates the development of new catalyst systems to control reaction selectivity.This review covers our efforts and some significant achievements from other groups on ligand-controlled reaction selectivity of coupling reactions,including introduction,computational methods,selectivity control by ligands in Niand Pd-catalyzed coupling reactions,as well as summary and future perspectives.