Cobalt-Catalyzed Kumada Coupling Forming Sterically Encumbered C?C Bonds

Concept Life Sciences have an internal literature highlights team that selects the most interesting and potentially useful synthetic transformations recently published. The key findings are summarized and shared within our organization on a monthly basis.

In the issue our chemists came across this paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.organomet.1c00513 which described the use of cobalt, in place of palladium, to catalyze the Kumada coupling, a type of cross-coupling reaction that uses a Grignard reagent and an alkyl halide to form a new C-C bond.

Malvern Panalytical and Concept Life Sciences have a clear agenda on becoming Net Zero and making the world cleaner, healthier and more productive through our products and innovative service solutions. We routinely employ Kumada cross-coupling reactions to attach sterically hindered alkyl fragments to aromatic rings. Exchanging palladium, an expensive and environmentally hazardous metal, with a greener alternative, such as cobalt, provides several advantages to us including reduced cost for waste management and a lower environmental impact of our lab work.?