Cross-coupling reactions furnishing carbon–carbon (C–C) bond is one of the most challenging tasks in organic syntheses. The early developed reaction protocols by Negishi, Heck, Kumada, Sonogashira, Stille, Suzuki, and Hiyama, utilizing palladium or its salts as catalysis have, for decades, attracted and inspired researchers affiliated with academia and industry. Tremendous efforts have been paid to develop and achieve more sustainable reaction conditions, such as the reduction in energy consumption by applying the microwave irradiation technique. Chemical reactions under controlled microwave conditions dramatically reduce the reaction time and therefore resulting in increase in the yield of the desired product by minimizing the formation of side products. In this review, we mainly focus on the recent advances and applications of palladium catalyzed cross-coupling carbon–carbon bond formation under microwave technology.

A new series of coumarin and benzofuran derivatives were synthesized as potential non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) by reacting, separately, 4-bromomethylcoumarins, their sulphonyl chlorides, and ethyl 3-(bromomethyl)-6-methoxy-1-benzofuran-2-carboxylate with different imidazoles and their benzo analogs. The antiviral (HIV-1, HIV-2) properties of the newly synthesized compounds were investigated in vitro and all compounds were found to be inactive, except 10 which showed inhibition of HIV-2 with EC₅₀ > 0.51 μgmL−1. The in vitro cytotoxicity of 17 and 19 was assayed against a panel of tumor cell lines consisting of CD4 human T-cells.