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.