Nickel-Catalyzed sp3 C–H Activation

Abstract Base metal catalyzed C–H activation represents a highly atom economic method to access functionalized molecules. This Account will focus on Ni-catalyzed C–H activation of sp3-hybridized carbon atoms with a particular focus on mechanism, recent applications, challenges, and outlook in this area. This Account will primarily focus on recent mechanistic work from 2017–2023.1 Base Metal C–H Activation 2 Nickel-Catalyzed sp3 C–H activation 3 Differences between Ni and Pd 4 Mechanistic Considerations 5 Elementary Steps 6 Directed sp3 C–H Activation 7 Choice of Directing Group 8 Primary C–H Activation 9 Secondary C–H Activation 10 Tertiary C–H Activation 11 Conclusion and Outlook