Herein, we report a general and practical nickel-catalyzed
deaminative
allenylation of amino acid derivatives with terminal alkynes. The
well-designed, electron deficient, and sterically hindered amide-type
NN2 pincer ligand was crucial to the success of this transformation,
enabling the coupling to occur under mild conditions with high efficiency.
The remarkable features of this chemistry are its good scalability,
its broad substrate scope, functional group tolerance, and the efficient
modification of peptides, drugs, and natural products