Nickel-Catalyzed Radical Migratory Coupling Enables C-2 Arylation of Carbohydrates

Tremendous advances have been made in nickel catalysis over the past decade. Several key properties of nickel, such as facile oxidative addition and ready access to multiple oxidation states, have allowed the development of a broad range of innovative reactions. In recent years, these properties have been increasingly understood and used to perform transformations long considered exceptionally challenging. Here we discuss some of the most recent and significant developments in homogeneous nickel catalysis, with an emphasis on both synthetic outcome and mechanism.

In the transition-metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions, the use of the first row transition metals as catalysts is much more appealing than the precious metals owing to the apparent advantages such as cheapness and earth abundance. Within the last two decades, particularly the last five years, explosive interests have been focused on the nickel-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura reactions. This has greatly advanced the chemistry of transition-metal-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions. Most notably, a broad range of aryl electrophiles such as phenols, aryl ethers, esters, carbonates, carbamates, sulfamates, phosphates, phosphoramides, phosphonium salts, and fluorides, as well as various alkyl electrophiles, which are conventionally challenging, by applying palladium catalysts can now be coupled efficiently with boron reagents in the presence of nickel catalysts. In this review, we would like to summarize the progress in this reaction.