Efficient and selective nickel-catalyzed addition of H-P(O) and H-S bonds to alkynes.

The cheap nickel catalysts are more reactive than the corresponding noble metal catalysts in the catalytic additions of a variety of P(O)-H bonds and an S-H bond to alkynes, affording regio- and stereoselectively both the Markovnikov and the anti-Markovnikov adducts, respectively, in high yields. A related five-coordinate hydrido nickel complex in the catalysis is successfully isolated, which can react readily with an alkyne to give the addition products.