nickel/Lewis acid (LA) cooperative catalysis to give beta-cyano-substituted acrylates and acrylamides, respectively, in highly stereoselective and regioselective manners. The resulting adducts serve as versatile synthetic building blocks through chemoselective transformations of the ester, amide, and cyano groups as demonstrated by the synthesis of typical structures of beta-cyano ester, beta-amino
Nickel/Lewis acid dual catalysis was found to effect the carbocyanation reaction of alkynes using arylacetonitriles, giving a range of triply substituted acrylonitriles; the reaction of opticallyactive alpha-phenylpropionitrile suggested a reaction mechanism that involves oxidative addition of a C-CN bond with retention of its absolute configuration.