The limited nucleophilicity of Reformatsky reagents remains a challenge for direct reactions with unactivated alkyl halides, typically necessitating transition metal catalysis. Here, the authors report a transition-metal-catalyst-free approach that facilitates direct nucleophilic substitution between Reformatsky reagents and diverse unactivated alkyl halides, which enables formal reductive cross-electrophile coupling via a one-pot process.
- Lingpu Meng
- Zimeng Li
- Qilong Shen
