Exploring visible light for carbon–nitrogen and carbon–oxygen bond formation via nickel catalysis

Heteroatom-containing motifs are one of the most privileged scaffolds for pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and functional materials. Transition-metal-catalyzed carbon–heteroatom bond-forming reactions have emerged as an indispensable synthetic tool for the rapid assembly of these valuable skeletons. Despite impressive progress, the development of general and efficient methods for the catalytic construction of carbon–heteroatom bonds with Earth-abundant catalysts under mild conditions is still highly desirable. Utilizing the new and unique reactivity uncovered by photoexcitation, recently, exciting progress has been made in the area of visible-light-driven nickel-catalyzed carbon–heteroatom bond-forming reactions, enabling facile access to diverse carbon–heteroatom bonds under exceptionally mild conditions. In this review, we highlight the recent synthetic methodology development for the formation of C–N and C–O bonds via visible-light-driven high-valent nickel complexes or photoexcited nickel complexes, with in-depth discussions with reaction designs and mechanistic scenarios.