Sharif Digital Repository

Owing to the inherent incompatibility with water, cyanation of aryl halides may be the most challenging category of palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions. The major challenges are attributed to the catalyst deactivation by the soluble cyanide (CN−) ions and desirable conversions only could be obtained by employing toxic organic solvents. The current minireview highlights mechanistic insights and breakthrough achievements for this reaction in the aqueous media  

This is the first study of samarium powder catalyzed cyanation reaction of aryl halides, bearing electron-withdrawing and electron-releasing substituents, in the presence of NaCN to afford corresponding benzonitriles in high yields. This protocol takes the advantage of being done in the absence of additive, ligand and precious transition metals such as palladium. © 2019 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim  

Oxidative cyanation of sp3C–H bonds at the α position of amines was achieved using CoCuFe2O4 as a catalyst and NaCN as an inexpensive cyanide source at room temperature. CoCuFe2O4 was found to be an active catalyst for Csp [3]-Csp coupling, efficiently delivering valuable α-aminonitriles from tertiary/secondary amines in good yields. The corresponding products were obtained with high selectivity toward α position. In addition, functional group tolerance offered the opportunity for application in late-stage functionalization of biologically active molecules. This transformation proceeds convenient on a gram-scale, and the catalyst can be reused for several runs with consistent catalytic...