Coupling of aryl and heteroaryl mono chlorides

A method for coupling aryl and heteroaryl mono chlorides having 4 to 30 carbons which comprises contacting said aryl mono chlorides in an aprotic solvent with a catalyst mixture comprising an anhydrous nickel compound and at least one ligand selected from the group consisting of a triaryl phosphine having 6 to about 14 carbons in each aryl moiety and an aromatic bidentate compound containing at least one ring nitrogen atom and about 5 to about 30 carbon atoms in the presence of a reducing metal selected from the group consisting of zinc, magnesium or manganese, at a temperature of about 0.degree. to about 250.degree. C., wherein the ratio of gram atoms of nickel to moles of aryl chloride is in the range of about 0.0001 to about 0.5, the amount of ligand is about 0.1 to about 100 moles per gram atom of nickel and the amount of reducing metal is at least about 0.5 gram atoms per mole of reacted aryl chloride.