A palladium‐catalyzed tandem reaction of cyanomethyl benzoates with arylboronic acids has been achieved. Substitution at the 2‐position of cyanomethyl benzoates was found to be crucial for the selective synthesis of oxazoles and isocoumarins. Cyanomethyl benzoates afforded 2,4‐diaryloxazoles as products, while 2‐benzoyl‐substituted cyanomethyl benzoates delivered 3‐benzoyl‐4‐aryl‐isocoumarins selectively
Nickel-Catalyzed C–CN Bond Formation via Decarbonylative Cyanation of Esters, Amides, and Intramolecular Recombination Fragment Coupling of Acyl Cyanides
An efficientnickel-catalyzed decarbonylative cyanation reaction which allows the direct functional-group interconversion of readily available esters into the corresponding nitriles was developed. This reaction successfully offers access to structurally diverse nitriles with high efficiency and excellent functional-group tolerance and provides a good alternative to classical synthetic pathways from