Rh(I)-Catalyzed Synthesis of Aryl and Alkenyl Silanes from Nitriles

Significance

This work represents an interesting example of a cross-coupling reaction of nitriles. Nitriles have been shown to serve as cross-coupling partners, but so far their use was limited to a small number of examples. A novel catalytic cycle, based on Rh, was designed to perform this transformation and the conditions were optimized to create a synthetically useful protocol. A broad range of substrates can be used in this reaction, including diversely substituted arenes, hetarenes and alkenes. A good tolerance of functional groups is observed.