Chemo- and regioselective click reactions through nickel-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition

Metal-catalyzed cycloaddition is an expeditious synthetic route to functionalized heterocyclic frameworks. However, achieving reactivity-controlled metal-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloadditions from competing internal alkynes has been challenging. Herein, we report a nickel-catalyzed [3 + 2] cycloaddition of unsymmetrical alkynes with organic azides to afford functionalized 1,2,3-triazoles with excellent regio- and chemoselectivity control. Terminal alkynes and cyanoalkynes afford 1,5-disubstituted triazoles and 1,4,5-trisubstituted triazoles bearing a 4-cyano substituent, respectively. Thioalkynes and ynamides exhibit inverse regioselectivity compared with terminal alkynes and cyanoalkynes, affording 1,4,5-trisubstituted triazoles with 5-thiol and 5-amide substituents, respectively. Density functional theory calculations are performed for the elucidation of the reaction mechanism. The computed mechanism suggests that a nickellacyclopropene intermediate is generated by the oxidative addition of the alkyne substrate to the Ni(0)-Xantphos catalyst, and the subsequent C-N coupling of this intermediate with an azide is responsible for the chemo- and regioselectivity.