Abundant metal-catalyzed carbonylation of alkyl bromides and alkyl chlorides

Transition metal-catalyzed carbonylation of alkyl halides is one of the most efficient methods for the assembly of aliphatic carbonyl-containing compounds. Despite the long history of carbonylation chemistry, core breakthroughs are still rare. For example, (1) the extensive use of noble metals makes it urgent to find suitable inexpensive metals as substitute catalysts, and (2) the substrates applied are still dominated by expensive alkyl iodides. In this paper, we discuss the carbonylation reactions of alkyl bromides and chlorides catalyzed by abundant metals developed by our group recently.