Palladium-catalyzed cyanation of aryl halides with in situ generated CN-from ClCF2H and NaNH2

An efficient Pd-catalyzed cyanation of aryl halides within situgenerated CN(-)anions is described. The CN(-)source stems from the quadruple cleavage of chlorodifluoromethane (ClCF2H) with sodium amide (NaNH2). This transformation features no requirement of a toxic CN source and avoids the problem of HCN generation associated with traditional methods. A series of aryl nitriles are obtained from aryl halides in good yields under mild reaction conditions.