Two picolinamide ligands were found to have significant accelerating effect to classical
Rosenmund–von Braun reaction, making the coupling of (hetero)aryl bromides with CuCN
occur at 100–120 °C with good to excellent yields in most cases. A large number of
functional groups and heterocycles were tolerated under these conditions, thereby
providing a convenient and reliable approach for diverse synthesis of aryl nitriles.
Key words
aryl nitriles - cyanation - coupling reaction - ligand - copper cyanide