An oven-dried 25 ml pressure flask was charged in a glovebox with Pd2dba3 (457.9 mg, 0.5 mmol, 1.0 Pd eq.), rac-BINAP (747.2 mg, 1.2 mmol, 1.2 eq.), 2,6-dimethyliodobenzene (173 L, 1.2 mmol, 1.2 eq.), benzene (10 mL) and a stirbar. The flask was sealed, removed from the glovebox and the purple solution was stirred at 60 o C for 16 h yielding an orange/brown solution and yellow solid. The flask was taken into a glovebox, and the contents transferred to a 100 mL round-bottom flask. Volatiles were removed under reduced pressure, yielding a dark orange solid. The residues were dissolved in toluene (100 mL), filtered to remove Pd black, and then toluene removed under reduced pressure. The orange solid was then triturated with dry acetone until the washings were colourless, and then triturated with THF until the washings were very pale yellow, after which solvent was removed under reduced pressure yielding (rac-BINAP)Pd(xylyl)(I) 14b as a yellow powder (388.