Regio-, Chemo-, and Enantioselective Ni-Catalyzed Hydrocyanation of 1,3-Dienes

A regio-, chemo-, and enantioselective nickel-catalyzed hydrocyanation of 1,3-dienes is reported. The key to the success of this asymmetric transformation is the use of a specific multichiral diphosphite ligand. In addition to aryl-substituted 1,3-dienes, highly challenging aliphatic 1,3-diene substrates can also be preferentially converted to the corresponding 1,2-adducts in decent yields with the highest enantioselectivities to date.