Nickel-Catalyzed Reductive Cleavage of Carbon-Oxygen Bonds in Anisole Derivatives Using Diisopropylaminoborane

The catalytic removal of a methoxy group on an aromatic ring allows this group to be used as a traceless activating and directing group for aromatic functionalization reactions. Although several catalytic methods for the reductive cleavage of anisole derivatives have been reported, all are applicable only to pi-extended aryl ethers, such as naphthyl and biphenyl ethers, while monocyclic aryl ethers cannot be reduced. Herein, we report a nickel-catalyzed reductive cleavage reaction of C-O bonds in aryl ethers using diisopropylaminoborane as the reducing agent. Unlike previously reported methods, this reducing reagent allows effective C-O bond reduction in a much wider range of aryl ether substrates, including monocyclic and heterocyclic ethers bearing various functional groups.