Nickel-Catalyzed Decarbonylative Coupling of Aryl Esters and Arylboronic Acids

A variety of functionalized biaryls can be accessed by coupling aryl and heteroaryl esters with boronic acids in Suzuki-Miyaura-type decarbonylative cross-coupling catalyzed by an affordable catalyst system composed of Ni(cod)(2) and PCy3. The methodology is tolerant of a variety of functional groups and presents an attractive alternative to the use of palladium catalysis currently used in industry to acquire such bis(hetero)aryls, but also reveals challenges associated with nickel catalysis of esters in cross-coupling chemistry.