Ni/Ti Dual Catalytic Cross-Coupling of Nitriles and Organobromides To Access Ketones

Herein, we report the development of a dual catalytic approach for the cross-coupling of nitriles with aryl- and aliphatic-bromides. A titanium(III) catalyst is used to activate nitriles enabling their coupling with organobromides through a nickel catalyst. The Ni/Ti system efficiently prepared unsymmetrical ketones with good chemoselectivity and could selectively couple a bromide in the presence of other functionalizable handles.