A Simple and Effective Synthesis of Aryl Azides via Arenediazonium Tosylates

Aromatic azides are formed in high yield from arenediazonium tosylates and sodium azide in water at room temperature or from aromatic amines via diazotization in the presence of p-TsOH. Besides being experimentally simple, these methods do not require any metal catalysis and provide clean products without purification.