The Latest from our Lab: Cross Couplings via C–N Bond Cleavage

Congratulations to Corey Basch, Jennie Liao, Jianyu Xu, and Jake Piane for their recent discovery of a new nickel-catalyzed cross coupling of alkyl pyridinium salts (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/jacs.7b02389)! When coupled with efficient formation of pyridinium salts from primary amines, this reaction enables the use of alkyl amines to alkyl arenes. It is the first cross coupling of an alkyl amine derivative with unactivated alkyl groups.