Nickel-Catalyzed Reductive Cross-Coupling of Aryl Halides with Alkyl Halides

The direct reductive cross-coupling of alkyl halides with aryl halides is described. The transformation is efficient (equimolar amounts of the starting materials are used), generally high-yielding (all but one between 55 and 88% yield), highly functional-group-tolerant [OH, NHBoc, NHCbz, Bpin, C(O)Me, CO2Et, and CN are all tolerated], and easy to perform (uses only benchtop-stable reagents, tolerates small amounts of water and oxygen, changes color when complete, and uses filtration workup). The reaction appears to avoid the formation of intermediate organomanganese species, and a synergistic effect was found when a mixture of two ligands was employed.