The Jarvo lab, in collaboration with the Hong lab, has completed a computational and experimental mechanistic investigation of nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling (XC) and cross-electrophile coupling (XEC) reactions of benzylic ethers. Both reactions share rate-determining stereospecific oxidative addition of the benzylic ether; after this step, the reaction mechanisms diverge with high chemoselectivity.  Noteably, the XEC proceeds via a facile intramolecular substitution reaction, a distinct mechanism compared to other catalytic XEC reactions. Read the full article here.