Iodine-mediated aryl transfer reaction from arylhydrazine hydrochlorides to nitriles

Abstract

An iodine-promoted, metal-, base-, and solvent-free cross-coupling reaction was developed for the synthesis of various useful secondary amides via an aryl N-addition reaction of aryl groups to cyano groups. This aryl transfer reaction proceeds with arylhydrazine hydrochlorides serving as the aryl donors. A labelling experiment shows that the N atom in the product comes from the cyano group of the nitriles, which are low in cost. A plausible radical-driven mechanism is also proposed.