The development of new catalytic reactions is essential for understanding the fundamental principles of chemical reactivity, and contributes to the creation of a more sustainable chemical industry. We now report in a new paper in Angewandte Chemie International Edition on the application of the one-carbon building block, carbon monoxide, for the synthesis of aliphatic ketones applying nickel catalysis. Normally, the development of catalytic protocols promoted by nickel complexes in the presence of CO are generally not compatible due to the formation of stable nickel carbonyl complexes. But in this work, we introduce a new Ni(II) pincer complex, which under specific CO pressures, effectively promotes the carbonylative coupling of benzyl bromides with alkyl zinc reagents.

This paper can be downloaded at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.201710089/full

This chemistry is generously funded by the Danish National Research Foundation and involves the DNRF center, CADIAC at the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University.