posted on 2019-03-24, 00:00authored byYu Kawamata, Julien C. Vantourout, David P. Hickey, Peng Bai, Longrui Chen, Qinglong Hou, Wenhua Qiao, Koushik Barman, Martin A. Edwards, Alberto F. Garrido-Castro, Justine N. deGruyter, Hugh Nakamura, Kyle Knouse, Chuanguang Qin, Khalyd J. Clay, Denghui Bao, Chao Li, Jeremy T. Starr, Carmen Garcia-Irizarry, Neal Sach, Henry S. White, Matthew Neurock, Shelley D. Minteer, Phil S. Baran
C–N
cross-coupling is one of the most valuable and widespread
transformations in organic synthesis. Largely dominated by Pd- and
Cu-based catalytic systems, it has proven to be a staple transformation
for those in both academia and industry. The current study presents
the development and mechanistic understanding of an electrochemically
driven, Ni-catalyzed method for achieving this reaction of high strategic
importance. Through a series of electrochemical, computational, kinetic,
and empirical experiments, the key mechanistic features of this reaction
have been unraveled, leading to a second generation set of conditions
that is applicable to a broad range of aryl halides and amine nucleophiles
including complex examples on oligopeptides, medicinally relevant
heterocycles, natural products, and sugars. Full disclosure of the
current limitations and procedures for both batch and flow scale-ups
(100 g) are also described.