Nickel(II) phosphine-catalysed hydrodehalogenation of aryl halides under mild ambient conditions

Abstract

A convenient and low-cost hydrodehalogenation process catalysed by air-stable nickel(II) complexes containing bidentate phosphine ligands has been developed under ambient conditions with sodium borohydride acting as the reducing agent and hydrogen atom source. High conversions of aryl halides, including polyfluorinated substrates, into their hydrogenated counterparts have been achieved in dimethylformamide (DMF) and to a moderate extent, in DMF/isopropanol (10:90% v/v) solvent mixture. A mechanism has been proposed to account for the experimental data.