The catalytic activities of three N-methylimidazole-based phosphine ligands in the Sonogashira coupling reaction were investigated using PdCl2 as the catalyst. The results showed all three complexes derived from the three imidazole-based phosphine ligands exhibited excellent activity towards the Sonogashira coupling reaction of bromobenzene with phenylacetylene, the catalytic activities decreased with increasing number of imidazole groups and ligand L1 with one imidazole group showed the best activity. In the optimized reaction conditions, a va...