Ni-Catalyzed Csp² and Csp³ Coupling for Divergent Bisboronic Ester Synthesis

Bisboronic esters are critical compounds in various research fields, including drug discovery, chemical biology, and material sciences. Currently, the bisboronic esters with reactive functional groups are difficult to synthesize; this is partially due to the lack of a robust method to produce these products with diverse structures and various functional groups at specific locations. To overcome this issue, this study introduced a Ni-catalysis approach to produce bisboronic esters efficiently via cross-coupling and homocoupling using readily available halogenated boronic esters as the starting material under mild reaction conditions. This newly developed strategy enables Csp²-Csp², Csp³-Csp³, and Csp²-Csp³ couplings, demonstrating a broad substrate scope and excellent compatibility with various functional groups.