Nickel-Catalyzed Carboxylation of Benzylic C-N Bonds with CO2.

A user-friendly Ni-catalyzed reductive carboxylation of benzylic C-N bonds with CO2 is described. This procedure outperforms state-of-the-art techniques for the carboxylation of benzyl electrophiles by avoiding commonly observed parasitic pathways, such as homodimerization or β-hydride elimination, thus leading to new knowledge in cross-electrophile reactions.