Ring Opening of N -Acyl Lactams Using Nickel-Catalyzed Transamidation.

We successfully developed a nickel-catalyzed transamidation method for the ring opening of N -acyl lactams. The method involves a reaction between N -benzoylpyrrolidin-2-one derivatives and aniline derivatives, with Ni(PPh 3 ) 2 Cl 2 serving as the catalyst, 2,2'-bipyridine as the ligand, and manganese as the reducing agent. This reaction led to the formation of ring-opening-amidated products in good yields. Notably, the method exhibited excellent efficiency for producing the corresponding ring-opening transamidation products for various ring sizes, including four-, five-, six-, seven-, and eight-membered ring lactams.