A Ni-catalyzed asymmetric ring-opening reaction of 2-substituted cyclopropane-1,1-dicarboxylates with aliphatic amines has been accomplished using the chiral indane–trisoxazoline (In-TOX) ligand. This highly enantioselective reaction provides an efficient approach to a variety of chiral γ-substituted γ-amino acid derivatives, which are readily transformed into multifunctionalized piperidines and γ-lactams. The single-crystal X-ray structure of the TOX–Ni complex is provided, and the role of the side arm in the chiral ligand is discussed.

Ni(II) and Pd(II) complexes based on N-((1H-pyrrol-2-yl)methylene)-2-(diphenylphosphino)benzenamine were synthesized and characterized. X-ray diffraction studies on complexes 1, 2, and 4 revealed that N, N, P, and halogen atoms coordinated to metal, with distorted square planar geometries in all cases. Upon treatment with modified methylaluminoxane (MMAO), the [N−NP]Ni(II)X complexes are robust and exhibit high activity for the vinyl addition polymerization of norbornene (up to 5.46 × 107 g PNB/mol(Ni)·h·atm).