Efficient and selective formation of unsaturated carboxylic and phenylacetic acids from diketene.

A nickel catalyst promotes the multicomponent coupling reaction of diketene, an alkyne, and Me2Zn to provide 3-methylene-4-hexenoic acids in excellent yields. Under similar conditions, the combination of the nickel catalyst and Et2Al(OEt) promotes a cycloaddition reaction involving dimerization of an alkyne to furnish phenylacetic acids. In the presence of PPh3, a formal [2+2+1+1] cycloaddition reaction proceeds to afford regioisomeric phenylacetic acids via cleavage of the C=C bond.

Ni-catalyzed homoallylation of polyhydroxy n,o-acetals with conjugated dienes promoted by triethylborane.

In the presence of Ni-catalyst and triethylborane, N,O-acetals prepared from glycolaldehyde and glyceraldehyde with primary amines in situ underwent homoallylation with conjugated dienes to provide 2-amino-5-hexenols in high regio- and stereoselectivity. Under similar reaction conditions, N,O-acetals from carbohydrates with primary amines provided the corresponding polyhydroxy-bishomoallylamines in good to reasonable yields.