General Paradigm in Photoredox Nickel-Catalyzed Cross-Coupling Allows for Light-Free Access to Reactivity

Self-sustained Ni-I/III cycles are established as a potentially general paradigm in photoredox Ni-catalyzed carbon-heteroatom cross-coupling reactions through a strategy that allows us to recapitulate photoredox-like reactivity in the absence of light across a wide range of substrates in the amination, etherification, and esterification of aryl bromides, the latter of which has remained, hitherto, elusive under thermal Ni catalysis. Moreover, the accessibility of esterification in the absence of light is especially notable because previous mechanistic studies on this transformation under photoredox conditions have unanimously invoked energy-transfer-mediated pathways.