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Updated: Dec 23, 2025

Synthesis of Hypervalent Iodonium Alkynyl Triflates for the Application of Generating Cyanocarbenes
Published on: September 8, 2013
Zn-Catalyzed Cyanation of Aryl Iodides
Lulu Zhao1,2, Yanan Dong1,2, Qiangqiang Xia1
1State Key Laboratory for Oxo Synthesis and Selective Oxidation, Suzhou Research Institute of LICP, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics (LICP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, P. R. China.
Abstract:
We report the first example of zinc-catalyzed cyanation of aryl iodides with formamide as the cyanogen source. The transformation was promoted by the bisphosphine Nixantphos ligand. Under optimized conditions, a variety of electron-donating and electron-withdrawing aryl iodides were converted into nitrile products in good to excellent yields. This approach is an exceedingly simple and benign method for the synthesis of aryl nitriles and is likely to proceed via a dinuclear Zn-concerted catalysis.
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