In situ phosphonium-containing Lewis basecatalyzed 1,6-cyanation reaction:a facile way to obtainα-diaryl andα-triaryl acetonitriles

We present a phosphonium-containing catalyst generated in situ from phosphine and tert-butyl acrylate that serves as an unusual Lewis base catalyst.It was applied for the promotion of a remote 1,6-cyanation reaction of p-quinone methides and fuchsones employing trimethylsilyl cyanide as the cyanide source.A diverse range ofα-diaryl andα-triaryl acetonitriles was obtained in high yields under mild reaction conditions with low catalyst loading(5 mol%).The practicality and utility of this protocol were demonstrated via the gram-scale preparation and facile elaboration of products.Mechanistic investigations(in situ NMR and ESI-MS analysis)were employed to characterize the active zwitterionic phosphonium intermediate,which was the“true”active catalyst.