A Mild and Efficient Palladium‐Catalyzed Cyanation of Aryl Mesylates in Water or tBuOH/Water

Cool and compatible: Aryl mesylates and tosylates underwent palladium-catalyzed cyanation under mild, aqueous conditions at 65–80 °C (see scheme). In many cases, water could be used as the reaction medium without a cosolvent, and a variety of substituents R, such as keto, aldehyde, ester, free amine, and nitrile groups, remained intact during the transformation. Cy=cyclohexyl, Ms=methanesulfonyl, Ts=p-toluenesulfonyl. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.