Photoinduced nickel-catalyzed carbonylation of alkyl halides to acid chlorides

Recently in Angewandte Chemie, Arndtsen and co-workers described a visible-light-mediated carbonylation of alkyl halides to their corresponding acid chlorides using a stable, carbon monoxide (CO)-coordinated Ni(0)/xantphos catalyst. The successful implementation of this CO-coordinated base-metal catalytic system illustrates how challenging carbonylation reactions can be achieved without the use of precious-metal catalysis.