The [C₄F₈] ligand supports a family of related fluoroalkyl nickel complexes spanning the +2 to +4 oxidation states.

The development of practical, efficient and atom-economical methods of formation of carbon-phosphorus bonds remains a topic of considerable interest for the current synthetic organic chemistry and electrochemistry. This review summarizes selected topics from the recent publications with particular emphasis on phosphine and phosphine oxides formation from white phosphorus, chlorophosphines in electrocatalytic processes using aryl, hetaryl or perfluoroalkyl halides as reagents. This review includes selected highlights concerning recent progress in modification of catalytic systems for aromatic C–H bonds phosphonation involving metal-catalyzed ligand directed or metal-induced oxidative processes. Furthermore, a part of this review is devoted to phosphorylation of olefins with white phosphorus under reductive conditions in water-organic media. Finally, we have also documented recent advances in ferrocene C–H activation and phosphorylation.

Electrocatalytic generation of nickel catalysts in low oxidation states by reduction of nickel complexes with various ligands (2,2′-bipyridine, 2,2′:6′,2′′-terpyridine, (S,S)-2,6-bis(4-phenyl-2-oxazolin-2-yl)-pyridine) in the presence of olefinic substrates and fluoroalkyl halides leads to new organic products derived from addition-dimerization processes. Due to the presence of two stereocenters in the dimerization products two diastereomers were characterized by a variety of analytical techniques including multi-dimensional NMR methods and X-ray single crystal diffraction. The formation of dimers was prevented by the inclusion of the hydrogen atom donor tributyltin hydride. The cyclic voltammetry study of selected nickel complexes along with fluoroalkyl halides demonstrated that Ni(I)L is the active form of the catalyst.