Nickel-Catalyzed Cyanation of Aryl Halides and Hydrocyanation of Alkynes via C-CN Bond Cleavage and Cyano Transfer

We report nickel-catalyzed cyanation and hydrocyanation methods to prepare aryl nitriles and vinyl nitriles from aryl halides and alkynes, respectively. Using inexpensive and nontoxic 4-cyanopyridine N-oxide as the cyano shuttle, the methods provide an efficient approach to prepare aryl cyanides and vinyl nitriles under mild and operationally simple reaction conditions with a broad range of functional group tolerances. In hydrocyanation of alkynes, the method demonstrated good regioselectivity, producing predominantly E- or Z-alkenyl nitriles in a controlled manner and exclusively Markovnikov vinyl nitriles when internal diaryl alkynes and terminal alkynes were applied as the substrates, respectively. The preliminary mechanistic investigation indicated that the C-CN bond cleavage process is promoted by oxidative addition to the nickel(I) complex in the cyanation of aryl halides, and further studies via a series of deuterium exchange experiments indicated that water serves as the hydrogen source for the hydrocyanation of alkynes.