Nickel-Catalyzed Cyanation of Unactivated Alkyl Chlorides or Bromides with Zn(CN)₂

Aiyou Xia, Xin Xie, Haoyi Chen, Jidong Zhao, Chunli Zhang, Yuanhong Liu*

*Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 345 Lingling Lu, Shanghai 200032, People's Republic of China, Email: yhliusioc.ac.cn

A. Xia, X. Xie, J. Zhao, C. Zhang, Y. Liu, Org. Lett., 2018, 20, 7735-7739.

DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.8b03539

---

see article for more reactions

Abstract

Nickel catalyzes a cyanation of unactivated secondary alkyl chlorides or bromides using less toxic Zn(CN)₂ as the cyanide source to provide a broad range of alkyl nitriles. Cyanation of primary alkyl chlorides or bromides was also achieved by reaction with Zn(CN)₂ in the presence of n-Bu₄NCl without the need for a nickel catalyst.

see article for more examples

---

---

Key Words

cyanation

---

ID: J54-Y2018