The first nickel-catalyzed intermolecular hydroacylation reaction of alkenes with simple aldehydes has been developed. This reaction offers a new approach to the selective preparation of branched ketones in high yields (up to 99%) and branched selectivities (up to 99:1). Experimental data provide evidence for reversible formation of acyl-nickel-alkyl intermediate, and DFT calculations show that the aldehyde C-H bond transfer to a coordinated alkene without oxidative addition is involved. The origin of the reactivity and regioselectivity of this reaction was also investigated computationally, which are consistent with experimental observations.

A Ni-catalyzed hydroarylation of styrenes and 1,3-dienes with organoboron compounds has been developed. The reaction offers a highly selective approach to diarylalkanes and allylarenes under redox-neutral conditions. In this hydroarylation reaction, a new strategy that uses the proton of methanol to generate the active catalyst species Ni-H was developed. The Ni-catalyzed hydroarylation, combined with a Ir-catalyzed C-H borylation, affords a very efficient and straightforward access to a retinoic acid receptor agonist.

We developed a highly regioselective addition of 1,3-dienes with simple ketones by nickel-hydride catalyst bearing DTBM-SegPhos ligand. A wide range of aromatic and aliphatic ketones directly coupled with 1,3-dienes, providing synthetically useful γ,δ-unsaturated ketones in high yield and regioselectivity. The asymmetric version of the reaction was also realized in high enantioselectivity by using novel chiral ligand DTBM-HO-BIPHEP. The utility of this hydroalkylation was demonstrated by facile product modification and enantioselective synthesis of ( R)-flobufen.

We report an enantioselective hydroarylation reaction of styrenes and 1,3-dienes with arylboronic acids catalyzed by nickel complexes bearing chiral spiro aminophosphine ligands. The reaction serves as an efficient, straightforward, and mild method for the preparation of enantioenriched 1,1-diarylalkanes, which are important building blocks for the synthesis of many biologically active molecules. This redox neutral reaction uses only catalytic amounts of the reagents and is, therefore, atom economical and environmentally benign. R Ar (HO) 2 B + R = aryl, alkenyl Ni(COD) 2 (2.5 mol %) (S )-SpiroAP (3.0 mol %) t BuOK (5 mol %) n PrOH, 40°C, 24 h R Ar up to 99% yield up to 93% ee P(Ph) 2 NH 2

The use of chiral transient directing groups (TDGs) is a promising approach for developing PdII‐catalyzed enantioselective C(sp3)−H activation reactions. However, this strategy is challenging because the stereogenic center on the TDG is often far from the C−H bond, and both TDG covalently attached to the substrate and free TDG are capable of coordinating to PdII centers, which can result in a mixture of reactive complexes. We report a PdII‐catalyzed enantioselective β‐C(sp3)−H arylation reaction of aliphatic ketones using a chiral TDG. A chiral trisubstituted cyclobutane was efficiently synthesized from a mono‐substituted cyclobutane through sequential C−H arylation reactions, thus demonstrating the utility of this method for accessing structurally complex products from simple starting materials. The use of an electron‐deficient pyridone ligand is crucial for the observed enantioselectivity. Interestingly, employing different silver salts can reverse the enantioselectivity.