Nickel-Catalyzed Electronically-Reversed Enantioselective Hydrocarbofunctionalizations of Acrylamides

Asymmetric hydrocarbofunctionalizations of alkenes has emerged as an efficient synthetic strategy for accessing optically active molecules via carbon-carbon bond-forming process from readily available alkenes and carbo-electrophiles. Herein, we present a summary of the efforts from our group to control the regio- and enantioselectivity of hydrocarbofunctionalizations of electron-deficient alkenes with a nickel catalyst and chiral bisoxazolidine ligand. The reaction undergoes electron-reversed hydrocarbofunctionalizations acrylamides with excellent enantioselectivity. This operationally simple protocol enables the asymmetric hydroalkylation, hydrobenzylation and hydropropargylation of acrylamides. This reaction is useful for preparing a wide range of α-branched chiral amides with broad functional group tolerance.