Palladium catalysts form a cornerstone of modern
chemistry with upmost scientific and industrial impact. Bulk
palladium metal itself is chemically inert, and a sequence of
chemical transformations has to be utilized to convert the metal into
Pd pre-catalyst covered by ligands. However, the “cocktail” of
catalysis concept discovered recently has shown that Pd systems
can efficiently operate in catalysis without the necessity of a
complicated and expensive pre-installed ligand environment. Here,
we point out on a green and sustainable process for Pd active
species generation without the need of waste-abundant pre-catalystrelated
chemistry. In this work, an electric current was used to
generate an active Pd catalyst from a bulk metal in an ionic liquid
medium for the efficient cross-coupling of aryl iodides/bromides and
boronic acids. Synthetically important Suzuki cross-coupling was
utilized as a representative test reaction to confirm the idea. It should
be emphasized that electric current is used only at the Pd dissolution
stage. Afterwards, the electrodes are removed from the reaction
mixture and a standard reaction procedure can be followed. The
reported catalyst preparation process via electrochemical dissolution
is potentially compatible with a number of already existing catalytic
methods.