On the Radical Nature of Iron-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Reactions

The radical nature of iron-catalyzed cross-coupling between Grignard reagents and alkyl halides has been studied by using a combination of competitive kinetic experiments and DFT calculations. In contrast to the corresponding coupling with aryl halides, which commences through a classical two-electron oxidative addition/reductive elimination sequence, the presented data suggest that alkyl halides react through an atom-transfer-initiated radical pathway. Furthermore, a general iodine-based quenching methodology was developed to enable the determination of highly accurate concentrations of Grignard reagents, a capability that facilitates and increases the information output of kinetic investigations based on these substrates.