RESEARCH LETTER
unselective. In our system, (dppp)Pd(Ar2) triflate is stable to further
reaction with itself (Fig. 2d) and accumulates in solution. By contrast,
(bpy)Ni(Ar1) bromide is a transient intermediate that quickly
reacts with itself (Fig. 2c) or with (dppp)Pd(Ar2) triflate (Fig. 2b).
Selectivity arises from the relative concentrations of these two com-
plexes in solution, similar to what occurs during multimetallic reac-
tions with group 11 organometallic intermediates, which are generally
slow to homocouple11. Consistent with our observations (Table 1), the
selectivity of this cross-Ullmann reaction is predicted to be independ-
ent of the amount of palladium and nickel added. Furthermore, our
proposed mechanism suggests that the formation of (bpy)Ni(Ar1)
bromide would limit the rate of product formation. Therefore, a higher
concentration of nickel, but not of palladium, should result in a higher
rate of product formation. We found this to be the case: reactions that
were run with a higher concentration of nickel were faster (24% yield
versus 7% yield at 4 hours for 25 mM versus 12.5 mM nickel), but the
concentrationof palladium didnot affect the rate of product formation
(11% yield versus 7% yield at 4 hours for 25 mM versus 12.5 mM
palladium). We are now working to further illuminate the mechanism
of this reaction and the origin of the cross-selectivity.
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Online Content Methods, along with any additional Extended Data display items
to these sections appear only in the online paper.
26. Rosen, B. M. et al. Nickel-catalyzed cross-couplings involving carbon–oxygen
Received 18 February; accepted 10 June 2015.
Published online 17 August 2015.
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Acknowledgements This work was supported by the NIH (R01 GM097243). L.K.G.A
acknowledges both an NSF Graduate Fellowship (NSF DGE-1419118) and an Elon
Huntington Hooker Fellowship (Univ. Rochester). D.J.W is an Alfred P. Sloan Research
Fellow and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar. We thank Z. Melchor (Univ. Rochester)
for preliminary exploration of coupling electron-poor aryl halides, and S. Wu for
assistance with graphics.
Author Contributions D.J.W. conceived the idea. L.K.G.A. performed experiments and
analysed the results with assistance from M.M.L. Both D.J.W. and L.K.G.A. proposed the
experiments, discussed the data, and wrote the manuscript.
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Author Information Reprints and permissions information is available at
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