Palladium-Catalyzed Cyanation of Aryl and Heteroaryl Chlorides

Significance Demonstrated here is a general and very mild method for Pd-catalyzed cyanation of aryl and heteroaryl chlorides using sterically demanding and electron-rich phosphine ligands. Many Pd sources and ligands were screened using Zn flakes as cocatalyst and Zn(CN) 2 as the cyanating agent; catalysts A and B were found to be the optimized systems. Electronically rich, neutral and deficient aryl chlorides were efficiently cyanated. Significantly, chloro indoles as well as several types of π-deficient chloro heterocycles were effectively converted into their corresponding nitriles.