Due to their widespread presence in functional materials and pharmaceuticals, biaryls
are of fundamental importance in organic chemistry. Methods for the synthesis of symmetrical
biaryls generally involve both metallic reduction and transition-metal catalysis.
In this work, we show that electroreduction can also constitute a very relevant way
to achieve the nickel-catalyzed reductive synthesis of symmetrical biaryl compounds.
Therefore, it is demonstrated that both aryl and heteroaryl halides undergo reductive
coupling to furnish the corresponding symmetrical biaryls in fair to excellent yields.
Reactions are performed under very mild conditions thus ensuring important functional
group tolerance.
Key words
homocoupling - electrochemistry - biaryl compounds - nickel - catalysis
