A single phosphine ligand allows palladium-catalyzed intermolecular C-O bond formation with secondary and primary alcohols.

Forging a bond: an efficient, general palladium catalyst for C-O bond-forming reactions of secondary and primary alcohols with a range of aryl halides has been developed using the ligand 1. Heteroaryl halides, and for the first time, electron-rich aryl halides can be coupled with secondary alcohols. A diverse set of substrate combinations are possible with just a single ligand, thus obviating the need to survey multiple ligands.