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A nickel-catalyzed β-selective hydrocarboxylation of ynamides to give protected dehydro-β-amino acids was developed. The key to exclusive β-selectivity was the use of diethylzinc as a reductant in the presence of a magnesium salt. The reaction was conducted with bis(acetylacetonato)nickel(II) instead of costly and sensitive bis(1,5-cyclooctadiene)nickel(0). In addition, the optimized ligand was inexpensive 1,5-cyclooctadiene. Investigation of the substrate scope revealed that both nitrogen and alkyne substituents have marked effects on the reaction efficiency. We obtained experimental clues that indicated the formation of a vinylzinc intermediate that forms a C–C bond with CO2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe the nickel-catalyzed hydrocarboxylation of ynamides with CO2 and H2O to afford a variety of α-amino-α,β-unsaturated esters with high regioselectivities. The selective α-carboxylation of ynamides with this catalytic protocol is unexpected in view of the electronic bias of ynamides and is in sharp contrast to our previous study in which a stoichiometric amount of Ni(0) was used to form a β-carboxylated product exclusively. We revealed that this unexpected C–C bond formation was induced by the combination of Zn and MgBr2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]