The oxidative cyclization of aromatic and heteroaromatic nitriles with alkynes in the presence of a catalytic amount of [{RuCl2(p-cymene)}2], Cu(OAc)2·H2O and KPF6 in acetic acid under air gave isoquinolones in good to excellent yields.

The Suzuki-Miyaura coupling of aryl nitriles with aryl/alkenyl boronic esters is reported. With this method, the cyano group could be applied as a protecting group of arenes and finally as a leaving group to further construct polyaryl scaffolds.

A cascade coupling reaction toward a variety of phenanthridine derivatives has been developed. This cascade transformation proceeds via the copper-catalyzed coupling reaction of diaryliodonium salts and nitriles, and undergoes cyclization into the phenanthridine core.

OSU-6, an MCM-41 type hexagonal mesoporous silica with mild Brönsted acid properties, has been used as an efficient, metal-free, heterogeneous catalyst for the click synthesis of 5-benzyl and 5-aryl-1H-tetrazoles from nitriles in DMF at 90 °C. This catalyst offers advantages including ease of operation, milder conditions, high yields, and reusability. Studies are presented that demonstrate the ...

The reaction of tertiary, secondary and benzylic alcohols with different nitriles in the presence of alumina-methanesulfonic acid (AMA) as a new reagent affords the corresponding amides in good yields (Table 1, 2). Conversion of 2,6-bis(hydroxymethyl)-4-halo anisoles into corresponding diamides in the range of 68-76% yields (Table 3) are also included in this paper.

We report a new, simple and air-stable iron(II) complex pre-catalyst for the synthesis of substituted pyridines via a [2+2+2] cycloaddition between diynes and nitrile derivatives.