Inside Cover: Synergistic N‐Heterocyclic Carbene/Palladium‐Catalyzed Umpolung 1,4‐Addition of Aryl Iodides to Enals (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1/2020)

N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) organocatalysis in the presence of transition metals is a challenge because of the high affinity of NHCs for metals. In their Communication on page 161, J. Mao, P. J. Walsh, and co-workers present a system for the conjugate addition of aryl iodides to enals through cooperative catalysis between an NHC and a Pd catalyst. The catalytic cycles intersect at Pd, where the two newly formed Pd−C bonds undergo reductive elimination to give a C−C bond.