Palladium-catalyzed dehydrogenation of α-cyclohexene-substituted nitriles to α-aryl nitriles

Abstract

The development of a practical, inexpensive, and cyanide-free method for synthesizing α-aryl nitriles remains a challenging goal in synthetic chemistry. Here, we report an approach for synthesizing α-aryl nitriles toward achieving this goal, by which α-cyclohexenyl acetonitriles and α-cyclohexenyl alkenyl nitriles are dehydrogenated to α-aryl nitriles.