Halide Abstraction Competes with Oxidative Addition in the Reactions of Aryl Halides with [Ni(PMe<inf>n</inf>Ph<inf>(3−n)</inf>)<inf>4</inf>]

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been used to study the oxidative addition of aryl halides to complexes of the type [Ni(PMenPh(3−n))4], revealing the crucial role of an open-shell singlet transition state for halide abstraction. The formation of NiI versus NiII has been rationalised through the study of three different pathways: (i) halide abstraction by [Ni(PMenPh(3−n))3], via an open-shell singlet transition state; (ii) SN2-type oxidative addition to [Ni(PMenPh(3−n))3], followed by phosphine dissociation; and (iii) oxidative addition to [Ni(PMenPh(3−n))2]. For the overall reaction between [Ni(PMe3)4], PhCl, and PhI, a microkinetic model was used to show that our results are consistent with the experimentally observed ratios of NiI and NiII when the PEt3 complex is used. Importantly, [Ni(PMenPh(3−n))2] complexes often have little, if any, role in oxidative addition reactions because they are relatively high in energy. The behaviour of [Ni(PR3)4] complexes in catalysis is therefore likely to differ considerably from those based on diphosphine ligands in which two coordinate Ni0 complexes are the key species undergoing oxidative addition.