Nature Communications (May 2021)

Hydroarylation of olefins catalysed by a dimeric ytterbium(II) alkyl

  • Georgia M. Richardson,
  • Iskander Douair,
  • Scott A. Cameron,
  • Joe Bracegirdle,
  • Robert A. Keyzers,
  • Michael S. Hill,
  • Laurent Maron,
  • Mathew D. Anker

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23444-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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Nucleophilic alkylation of aromatics with main group reagents was achieved, but it is limited to a stoichiometric regime. Here, the authors report that the ytterbium(II) hydride reacts with ethene and propene to afford ytterbium(II) n-alkyls, both of which can facilitate the catalytic alkylation of benzene at room temperature via an SN2 mechanism.