Professor van Leeuwen‘s review entitled ‘Bite angle effects of diphosphines in C-C and C-X bond forming cross coupling reactions’published in Chemical Society Reviews is one of the most highly cited articles in the last two years.
The title is self-explanatory.
You can read the abstract here:
‘Catalytic reactions of C–C and C–X bond formation are discussed in this critical review with particular emphasis on cross coupling reactions catalyzed by palladium and wide bite angle bidentate diphosphine ligands. Especially those studies have been collected that allow comparison of the ligand bite angles for the selected ligands: dppp, BINAP, dppf, DPEphos and Xantphos. Similarities with hydrocyanation and CO/ethene/MeOH reactions have been highlighted, while rhodiumhydroformylation has been mentioned as a contrasting example, in which predictability is high and steric and electronic effects follow smooth trends. In palladium catalysis wide bite angles and bulkiness of the ligands facilitate generally the reductive elimination thus giving more efficient cross coupling catalysis (174 references).’
And download the whole article here.