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Yndiamides, underexplored cousins of ynamides, offer rich synthetic potential as doubly nitrogenated two carbon building blocks. Here we report a gold-catalyzed oxidative functionalization of yndiamides to access unnatural amino acid derivatives, using a wide range of nucleophiles as a source of the amino acid side chain. The transformation proceeds under mild conditions, is highly functional group tolerant, and displays excellent regioselectivity through subtle steric differentiation of the yndiamide nitrogen atom substituents.

Ynamides are accessed via copper-catalyzed coupling of Grignard or organozinc nucleophiles with chloroynamides, formed in situ from 1,2-dichloroenamides. The reaction exhibits a broad substrate scope, is readily scaled, and overcomes typical limitations in ynamide synthesis such as the use of ureas, carbamates, and bulky or aromatic amide derivatives. This modular approach contrasts with previous routes by installing both the N- and C-substituents of the ynamide as nucleophilic components.