Nickel-Catalyzed Homocoupling of Aryl Ethers with Magnesium Anthracene Reductant

Abstract Nickel-catalyzed reductive homocoupling of aryl ethers has been achieved with Mg(anthracene)(thf)3 as a readily available low-cost reductant. DFT calculations provided rationale for the specific efficiency diorganomagnesium-type two-electron reducing agent. The show that dianionic anthracene-9,10-diyl ligand reduces two ether substrates, resulting in reaction through supply electrons to Ni-Mg bimetallic system form organomagnesium nickel(0)-ate complexes, which cause sequential C–O bond cleavage reactions. also showed cooperative actions Lewis acidic magnesium atoms and electron-rich nickel