Aliphatic C–H bond methylation enabled by hydrogen atom transfer

In a recent Science paper, Stahl and co-workers describe direct C(sp3)−H methylation via Ni-catalyzed cross-coupling of a radical pair deriving from divergent hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) and C–Me cleavage pathways in a photogenerated alkoxyl radical. The implications of these findings for the rapidly expanding field of C−H methylation are discussed.