High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Heck reaction (also called the Mizoroki-Heck reaction) is the chemical reaction of an unsaturated halide (or triflate) with an alkene and a base and palladium catalyst to form a substituted alkene. Together with the other palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions, this reaction is of great importance, as it allows one to do substitution reactions on planar centers. It is named after Tsutomu Mizoroki and Richard F. Heck. Heck was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery and development of this reaction.