UCLA

Within the context of Ni photoredox catalysis, halogen atom photoelimination from Ni has emerged as a fruitful strategy for enabling hydrogen atom transfer (HAT)-mediated C(sp3)-H functionalization. Despite the numerous synthetic transformations invoking this paradigm, a unified mechanistic hypothesis that is consistent with experimental findings on the catalytic systems and accounts for halogen radical formation and facile C(sp2)-C(sp3) bond formation remains elusive. We employ kinetic analysis, organometallic synthesis, and computational investigations to decipher the mechanism of a prototypical Ni-catalyzed photochemical C(sp3)-H arylation reaction. Our findings revise the previous mechanistic proposals, first by examining the relevance of SET and EnT processes from Ni intermediates relevant to the HAT-based arylation reaction. Our investigation highlights the ability for blue light to promote efficient Ni-C(sp2) bond homolysis from cationic NiIII and C(sp2)-C(sp3) reductive elimination from bipyridine NiII complexes. However interesting, the rates and selectivities of these processes do not account for the productive catalytic pathway. Instead, our studies support a mechanism that involves halogen atom evolution from in situ generated NiII dihalide intermediates, radical capture by a NiII(aryl)(halide) resting state, and key C-C bond formation from NiIII. Oxidative addition to NiI, as opposed to Ni0, and rapid NiIII/NiI comproportionation play key roles in this process. The findings presented herein offer fundamental insight into the reactivity of Ni in the broader context of catalysis.