Zinc‐Catalyzed Direct Cyanation of Indoles and Pyrroles: Nitromethane as a Source of a Cyano Group

Abstract

Abstract With nitromethane and diphenylsilane (Ph 2 SiH 2 ), zinc triflate behaves as a Lewis acid catalyst for the cyanation of nitrogen‐containing heteroarenes such as indoles and pyrroles. This is the first realization of the Lewis acid‐catalyzed direct cyanation of a C(aryl)H bond with no CN group‐containing cyanating agent. magnified image