Nickel-Catalyzed Direct Cross-Coupling of Unactivated Aryl Fluorides with Aryl Bromides.

A nickel-catalyzed direct cross-coupling of unactivated aryl fluorides with aryl bromides is realized. The one-pot reaction, which avoids the use of preformed and sensitive organometallic reagents, proceeds effectively via C-F bond cleavage at room temperature in THF in the presence of the phosphine ligand and magnesium powder (with or without TMSCl) to produce the desired biaryls in modest to good yields.