Transition-metal-catalyzed Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling reactions: a remarkable advance from palladium to nickel catalysts

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.