To COMe and go: The title reaction, involving cleavage of a COMe bond, is demonstrated for the coupling of aryl methyl ethers on fused aromatic systems, such as naphthalene and phenanthrene, as well as anisoles containing electron‐withdrawing groups with a wide range of boronic esters. cod=cycloocta‐1,5‐diene, Cy=cyclohexyl.

Two protocols for the nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling of aryl fluorides with aryl boronic esters have been developed. The first employs metal fluoride cocatalysts, such as ZrF(4) and TiF(4), which enable Suzuki-Miyaura reactions of aryl fluorides bearing electron-withdrawing (ketones, esters, and CF(3)), aryl and alkenyl groups as well as those comprising fused aromatic rings, such as fluoronaphthalenes and fluoroquinolines. The second protocol employs aryl fluorides bearing ortho-directing groups, which facilitate the difficult C-F bond activation process via cyclometalation. N-heterocycles, such as pyridines, quinolines, pyrazoles, and oxazolines, can successfully promote cross-coupling with an array of organoboronic esters. A study into the substituent effects with respect to both coupling components has provided fundamental insights into the mechanism of the nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling of aryl fluorides.

Nickel(0)-catalyzed cross-coupling of methoxyarenes through C-O bond activation has been the subject of considerable research because of their favorable features compared with those of the cross-coupling of aryl halides, such as atom economy and efficiency. In 2008, we have reported nickel/PCy-catalyzed cross-coupling of methoxyarenes with arylboronic esters in which the addition of a stoichiometric base such as CsF is essential for the reaction to proceed. Recently, we have also found that the scope of the substrate in the Suzuki-Miyaura-type cross-coupling of methoxyarenes can be greatly expanded by using 1,3-dicyclohexylimidazol-2-ylidene (ICy) as the ligand. Interestingly, a stoichiometric amount of external base is not required for the nickel/ICy-catalyzed cross-coupling. For the mechanism and origin of the effect of the external base to be elucidated, density functional theory calculations are conducted. In the nickel/PCy-catalyzed reactions, the activation energy for the oxidative addition of the C(aryl)-OMe bond is too high to occur under the catalytic conditions. However, the oxidative addition process becomes energetically feasible when CsF and an arylboronic ester interact with a Ni(PCy)/methoxyarene fragment to form a quaternary complex. In the nickel/ICy-catalyzed reactions, the oxidative addition of the C(aryl)-OMe bond can proceed more easily without the aid of CsF because the nickel-ligand bonds are stronger and therefore stabilize the transition state. The subsequent transmetalation from an Ar-Ni-OMe intermediate is determined to proceed through a pathway with lower energies than those required for β-hydrogen elimination. The overall driving force of the reaction is the reductive elimination to form the carbon-carbon bond.

A nickel-catalyzed reductive deoxygenation of aryl alkyl ethers and aryl pivalates has been developed. Hydrosilanes serve as a mild reducing agent. The present protocol allows the use of a pivalate group as a robust and traceless steering group in arene functionalization reactions.

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Ni0-catalyzed cross-coupling of aryl methyl ethers with amines is described. The use of an N-heterocyclic carbene as a ligand and NaOt-Bu as a base promotes the amination of anisole derivatives via the cleavage of normally unreactive aryl carbon–oxygen bonds.

The Ni(0)-catalyzed cross-coupling of alkenyl methyl ethers with boronic esters is described. Several types of alkenyl methyl ethers can be coupled with a wide range of boronic esters to give the stilbene derivatives.

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