A series of new bifunctional nickel precatalysts,[1-(R)-3-N-(benzylacetamido) imidazol-2- ylidene] 2 Ni [R= Me (1b), i-Pr (2b), and CH2Ph (3b)], containing a Lewis acidic metal site and a Lewis basic amido-N site in a pendent ligand sidearm, have been successfully designed for base-free Michael addition reaction. Specifically, the nickel (1–3) b complexes catalyzed the highly desired base-free Michael addition reactions of representative cyclic ...