Combined Experimental and Theoretical Study on the Reductive Cleavage of Inert C–O Bonds with Silanes: Ruling out a Classical Ni(0)/Ni(II) Catalytic Couple and Evidence for Ni(I) Intermediates

A mechanistic and computational study on the reductive cleavage of C-OMe bonds catalyzed by Ni(COD)(2)/PCy(3) with silanes as reducing agents is reported herein. Specifically, we demonstrate that the mechanism for this transformation does not proceed via oxidative addition of the Ni(0) precatalyst into the C-OMe bond. In the absence of an external reducing agent, the in-situ-generated oxidative addition complexes rapidly undergo β-hydride...