10.1021/acs.organomet.6b00650
The research investigates the comparative reactivity of three bisphosphine nickel(II) precatalysts—namely (L1)Ni(o-tol)Cl (C1), (L2)Ni(o-tol)Cl (C2), and (L3)Ni(o-tol)Cl (C3)—in nickel-catalyzed C(sp2)?N cross-coupling reactions. The study aims to evaluate how ancillary ligands influence catalytic performance in these transformations, which are essential for synthesizing biologically active molecules and functional materials. The chemicals used include ammonia, primary alkylamines such as furfurylamine and sec-butylamine, secondary dialkylamines like morpholine, and a range of aryl electrophiles including chlorides, bromides, and tosylates. The newly synthesized air-stable precatalyst C1, featuring an electron-rich JosiPhos CyPF-Cy ligand, was found to be competitive with and sometimes complementary to C2, especially in challenging room-temperature monoarylations of ammonia and primary alkylamines with (hetero)aryl chlorides.