Ryosuke Takise, Kei Muto, Junichiro Yamaguchi and Kenichiro Itami

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, Early View. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201403823

The nickel-catalyzed α-arylation of ketones with readily available phenol derivatives (esters and carbamates) provides access to useful α-arylketones. The use of 3,4-bis(dicyclohexylphosphino)thiophene (dcypt) as an air-stable ligand enables this transformation. The intermediate of an assumed C-O oxidative addition was isolated and characterized by X-ray crystal-structure analysis.