Our recent project in collaboration with the Liu lab from the University of Pittsburgh on the regiodivergent hydroarylation/-alkenylation of alkenyl carboxylic acids with organoboronic acids has been accepted in Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. and appears in final form online this week. Key to the success of this methodology is the discovery of a novel 4,4-dibenzyl-Pyrox ligand that grants access to the anti-Markovnikov product, overriding the inherent selectivity for the Markovnikov product under ligand-free conditions. Mechanistic studies point to a unique carboxylate-mediated concerted hydronickelation mechanism. Congrats to Engle lab members Zi-Qi, Ruohan, Van, and Yang; as well as a Liu lab member Yue.

For a link to the paper, click here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202010840

This work was first described in July in a pre-print that was deposited on ChemRxiv: https://chemrxiv.org/articles/Ligand-Controlled_Regiodivergence_in_Nickel-Catalyzed_Hydroarylation_and_Hydroalkenylation_of_Alkenyl_Carboxylic_Acids/12650009