Catalytic Oxidative Decarboxylative Coupling Reactions

Abstract : Decarboxylative coupling reactions are emerging as an efficient route to access a diverse array of substituted arenes from inexpensive and readily available precursors. Unfortunately, most methods require pre-functionalized aryl halide coupling partners. An oxidative transformation enabling the direct decarboxylative coupling with an arene C-H bond is an attractive alternative, but current methodologies suffer limitations of substrate scope. Copper and nickel catalysts offer an opportunity to overcome these challenges, yet there are limited examples of Cu- or Ni catalyzed transformations of this type. This talk will focus on our recently developed copper- and nickel-catalyzed oxidative decarboxylative C-H arylation reactions to generate biaryl products. Recent work to extend the scope of reactivity, explore the reaction mechanism, and understand the substrate limitations will also be presented.