The palladium-catalyzed cyanation of Ar-X (X = I, Br, Cl, OTf, and H) allows for an efficient access towards benzonitriles. After its discovery in 1973 and following significant improvements in recent decades, this methodology has become nowadays the most popular for preparation of substituted aromatic nitriles. In this critical review, we summarize the important developments in this area from 2000 until 2010 (151 references).

A new advantageous cyanating agent, potassium hexacyanoferrate(II), is described for the palladium-catalyzed cyanation of aryl halides. All cyanide ions on the iron(II) center can be transferred to the aryl halide using palladium(II) acetate and dppf as the catalyst. Under optimized reaction conditions good yields of benzonitriles and unprecedented catalyst productivities are observed.

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An improved protocol for the palladiumcatalyzed cyanation of electron-rich aryl chlorides with potassium ferrocyanide {K 4 [Fe(CN) 6 ]} is presented. Compared to previous procedures the substrate scope is significantly broadened.