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Published on: May 26, 2019
Copper-free Sandmeyer cyanation of arenediazonium o-benzenedisulfonimides
Margherita Barbero1, Silvano Cadamuro, Stefano Dughera
1Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Torino, C.so Massimo d'Azeglio 48, 10125 Torino, Italy. stefano.dughera@unito.it.
Abstract:
Arene and heteroarenediazonium o-benzenedisulfonimides can be used as efficient reagents in Sandmeyer cyanation. This work reports such reactions carried out by us under very mild conditions using tetrabutyl ammonium cyanide as a safe cyanide source and, interestingly, without the need for a Cu catalyst. The reactions have given rise to aryl nitriles in good yields (25 examples, average yield 75%). A good amount of o-benzenedisulfonimide was recovered from each reaction and then reused to prepare other salts. Mechanistic insights have allowed us to highlight the fundamental role of the o-benzenedisulfonimide anion as an electron transfer agent.
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