Recent Advances in Nonprecious Metal Catalysis

Cobalt-Catalyzed Allylic Alkylation at sp3-Carbon Centers

The rising demand and financial costs of noble transition metal catalysts have emphasized the need for sustainable catalytic approaches. Over the past few years, base-metal catalysts have emerged as ideal candidates to replace their noble-metal counterparts because of their abundance and easiness of handling. Despite the significant advancements achieved with precious transition metals, earth-abundant cobalt catalysts have emerged as efficient alternatives for allylic substitution reactions. In this review, allylic alkylations at sp3-carbon centers mediated by cobalt will be discussed, with a special focus on the mechanistic features, scope, and limitations.

Nickel-Catalyzed Negishi Cross-Coupling of Alkyl Halides, Including Unactivated Tertiary Halides, with a Boron-Stabilized Organozinc Reagent

Nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling of unactivated tertiary alkyl electrophiles with alkylmetal reagents is still a challenge. We report herein a nickel-catalyzed Negishi cross-coupling of alkyl halides, including unactivated tertiary halides, with boron-stabilized organozinc reagent BpinCH₂ZnI, yielding versatile organoboron products with high functional-group tolerance. Importantly, the Bpin group was found to be indispensable for accessing the quaternary carbon center. The synthetic practicability of the prepared quaternary organoboronates was demonstrated by their conversion to other useful compounds.

Ligand-Controlled Nickel-Catalyzed Regiodivergent Cross-Electrophile Alkyl-Alkyl Couplings of Alkyl Halides

Functionalizing specific positions on a saturated alkyl molecule is a key challenge in synthetic chemistry. Herein, a ligand-controlled regiodivergent alkylations of alkyl bromides at different positions by Ni-catalyzed alkyl-alkyl cross-electrophile coupling with the second alkyl bromides has been developed. The reaction undergoes site-selective isomerization on one alkyl bromides in a controlled manner, providing switchable access to diverse alkylated structures at different sites of alkyl bromides. The reaction occurs at three similar positions with excellent chemo- and regioselectivity, representing a remarkable ligand tuned reactivity between alkyl-alkyl cross-coupling and nickel migration along the hydrocarbon side chain. This reaction offers a catalytic platform to diverse saturated architectures by alkyl-alkyl bond-formation from identical starting materials.

Self-flux-grown Ba4Fe4ClO9.5−x crystals exhibiting structures with tunable modulation

The synthesis and X-ray structural study of the new family of compounds Ba₄Fe₄ClO_9.5−x with tunable structural modulation are reported. The framework of the structure has the Ba₂Fe₄O_9.5−x composition, with open hexagonal channels extending along the c-axis. The channels are filled with linear [Ba–Cl–Ba] triplets. The oxygen stoichiometry and the oxidation state of iron both are controlled by the redox conditions during crystal preparation. The modulation of the crystal structure arises from the distribution of the oxygen atoms in the framework and iron coordination polyhedra are a combination of FeO₄-tetrahedra, FeO₅-bipyramids, and FeO₆-octahedra. The structure modulation also originates from the ordered or disordered distribution of the [Ba–Cl–Ba] triplets filling the channels which is also affected by the conditions of the thermal treatment of the crystals. The structure investigation reveals a composition variation from Ba₄Fe₄ClO_9.5 (x = 0), in which Fe exhibits a 3+ oxidation state, to Ba₄Fe₄ClO₈ (x = 1.5) with the framework built exclusively of FeO₄ tetrahedra.

Ba₄Fe₄ClO_9.5−x compounds are built of a Ba₂Fe₄O_9.5−x framework with open hexagonal channels. (Ba–Cl–Ba) trimers located in the channels and the framework O atoms cause incommensurability, which is tuned under different annealing conditions.

Nickel-Catalyzed Kumada Cross-Coupling Reactions of Benzylic Sulfonamides

Herein, we report a Kumada cross-coupling reaction of benzylic sulfonamides. The scope of the transformation includes acyclic and cyclic sulfonamide precursors that cleanly produce highly substituted acyclic fragments. Preliminary data are consistent with a stereospecific mechanism that allows for a diastereoselective reaction.