Tandem Acceptorless Dehydrogenative Coupling-Decyanation under Nickel Catalysis

J Org Chem. 2021 Jun 4;86(11):7552-7562. doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.1c00592. Epub 2021 May 25.

Abstract

The development of new catalytic processes based on abundantly available starting materials by cheap metals is always a fascinating task and marks an important transition in the chemical industry. Herein, a nickel-catalyzed acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols with nitriles followed by decyanation of nitriles to access diversely substituted olefins is reported. This unprecedented C═C bond-forming methodology takes place in a tandem manner with the formation of formamide as a sole byproduct. The significant advantages of this strategy are the low-cost nickel catalyst, good functional group compatibility (ether, thioether, halo, cyano, ester, amino, N/O/S heterocycles; 43 examples), synthetic convenience, and high reaction selectivity and efficiency.