A facile microwave-assisted palladium-catalyzed cyanation of aryl chlorides

We report an efficient method for the preparation of aryl nitriles from aryl chlorides under either microwave assisted or thermal conditions. A catalyst system comprising tris(dibenzylidene acetone)dipalladium (Pd2(dba)3) and 2-(2′,6′-dimethoxybiphenyl)dicyclohexylphosphine (S-Phos) is shown to effectively promote cyanation of various aryl chlorides with Zn(CN)2 as the cyanide source.