Nickel-catalyzed arylcyanation of alkenes via cyano group translocation:access to 1,n-dinitriles or 4-amino nitriles

Herein,a nickel-catalyzed arylcyanation of unactivated alkenes via cyano group translocation with aryl boronic acids has been developed.These transformations provided a robust approach to constructing structurally diverse 1,n-dinitriles or 4-amino nitriles from easily prepared and commercially available starting materials.The cyano group translocation was achieved,involving the addition into the intramolecular C–N triple bond followed by the retro-Thorpe reaction.Mechanistic studies revealed that high temperature and CsHCO_(3) as the base were crucial for the cyano group translocation.