The chemistry of nickel(N-heterocyclic carbene) species has blossomed at the beginning of this century with a particularly rapid acceleration in the last 5 years, as indicated by the fact that more than 65% of the discussed research articles in this comprehensive review date from the period 2010-2015. The rapid evolution of this chemistry has led to an increasing number of applications in the field of catalytic C-heteroatom bond formation, reduction and oxidation where the heteroatom is either nitrogen, sulfur, oxygen or boron. Thus, in addition to the development of aryl aminations, aryl thiolations, alkyne hydrothiolations, and transfer hydrogenations, which are the most ancient reactions of this type known for these systems, the last five years have seen the appearance of a number of novel interesting Ni(NHC)-catalyzed transformations such as the dehydrogenative cross-coupling of aldehydes and amines or alcohols, the hydroamination of alkenes, the hydroimination of alkynes, a one-step indoline synthesis,
The chemistry of nickel N-heterocyclic
carbene complexes is a research
area that has blossomed over the last 10 years, and a large number
of new complexes with a variety of architectural motifs are now known.
The evolution of this chemistry has led to increasing applications
of these complexes in catalytic bond formation. The rapid expansion
of this field now calls for a review of the kinds of reactions that
are catalyzed and a summary of the state of the art at this time.
As the breadth of reactions catalyzed by such complexes is vast, this
review specifically targets catalytic C–C bond formation, in
particular C–C cross-couplings and C–C couplings via
C–H bond activation, mediated by nickel–N-heterocyclic
carbene complexes. A special emphasis is placed on mechanistic data,
because this allows possible new insights into catalyst improvement.
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