Over the past five years, our efforts to develop robust nickel precatalysts have revealed a key insight: stability alone isn’t enough. For practical, broadly useful catalysis, solubility across a wide range of organic solvents is just as critical.
In our latest preprint, we introduce a new family of bis(perfluoroaryl)nickel(II) precatalysts that combine exceptional stability, high solubility, and operational simplicity. Inspired by classic inorganic chemistry strategies, this design cleanly releases an inert (C₆F₅)₂ byproduct upon catalyst initiation—streamlining activation while maintaining performance.

The project was led by former postdoctoral scholar Nana Kim (now at Bristol Myers Squibb) and graduate student Aimee Bangerter, and brought together a talented, multidisciplinary team spanning Scripps Research, University of California San Diego, and Bristol Myers Squibb.

Congratulations to everyone involved in this outstanding collaborative effort!

🧪 ChemRxiv pre-print: https://chemrxiv.org/doi/full/10.26434/chemrxiv.15000413/v1