A Ni-catalyzed cyanation of aryl halides using potassium ferrocyanide (K4[Fe(CN)6]) as a nontoxic cyanide source has been developed. Key features of this method include the use of biphasic aqueous con...

A safe and scalable synthesis of A, a key aryl boronate ester intermediate toward an immunology asset udifitimod, via a Ni-catalyzed Miyaura borylation is reported. High-throughput experimentation, design of experiment, and reagent stability/compatibility studies were used to optimize the reaction conditions and furnish the borylation of aryl sulfamate B in 80–85% yield and >98% purity/potency. Significant hydrogen off-gassing was observed during the reaction, metal remediation, and crystallization steps of the first-generation process, and efforts were made to quantify, understand, and mitigate this off-gassing to ensure a safe and reliable scale-up. Two multikilogram batches of the process were successfully run to afford A in an average 85% yield, >99% potency, and ≤28 ppm residual Ni. Using the mechanistic learnings from this work, a second-generation process was developed which significantly reduced hydrogen off-gassing at all steps of the process, as well as increasing final yield and reducing process mass intensity. This second-generation process was demonstrated on a 1 kg scale to afford the product in 90% yield, >99% purity/potency, and 50 ppm residual Ni.

As an alternative to iridium catalysts, a procedure to access and employ a more earth-adundant Mn2(CO)10-derived pincer complex was successfully demonstrated in the synthesis of a complex pharmaceutically relevant ketone from milligram to 500g scales. Mechanistic studies revealed that the dissociation of CO driven by light is a critical step in forming the active catalyst. This robust and mechanistically informed method reliably promotes hydrogen autotransfer of alcohols, catalyzing a diverse array of C–C and C–N bond formations. This emphasizes the importance of precatalyst selection and understanding catalyst activation to enable rapid and successful uptake of novel methods in sustainable catalysis.

The development and execution of a nickel-catalyzed borylation/palladium-catalyzed Suzuki telescoped process utilizing the inexpensive NiCl2·6H2O precatalyst for the borylation step are reported. The ...