Nickel-Mediated Cycloaddition by Two Sequential C-H Activations

摘要

Be it the design of a simple or architecturally complex molecule, carbon-carbon bond formation processes play a pivotal role. One of the most common adopted strategies to accomplish these tasks is the cross-coupling reaction, where electrophiles and nucleophiles are coupled with the aid of a suitable transition-metal catalyst. However, a limitation of cross-coupling methods is the amount of waste being produced in these processes. One solution is the use of less oxidized substrates like arenes or alkanes which would be coupled through selective C—H activations. A significant amount of work has been done to understand and utilize C(sp~2)-H activation of arenes. In contrast, C(sp~3)—H activation of alkanes is still a challenging problem in organometallic chemistry. Not surprisingly, cross-coupling by activation of both C(sp~2)—H and C(sp~3)—H bonds is quite rare.