Talk by Cristofer Pezzetta: Nickel and Photoredox Dual Catalysis Approach

We had the pleasure to host a talk from Dr Cristofer Pezzetta entitled “Enantioselective Synthesis of N-Benzylic Heterocycles: a Nickel and Photoredox Dual Catalysis Approach”.
Cristofer was supervised by Armando during the beginning of his PhD; Cristofer carried out his PhD under the supervision of Dr Rob Davidson and Prof. Davide Bonifazi as a EU-ITN Phototrain PhD candidate. He is now research chemist at Dr. Reddy’s laboratories in Cambridge (UK).
He presented a dual nickel- and photoredox-catalysed modular approach for the preparation of enantioenriched N-benzylic heterocycles. α-Heterocyclic carboxylic acids were reported as suitable substrates for a decarboxylative cross-coupling with aryl bromides, affording drug-like products in modest to good enantioselectivity when a chiral pyridine-oxazoline (PyOx) ligand is employed. The presence of a directing group on the heterocyclic moiety was shown to be beneficial, affording improved stereocontrol in a number of cases.