Palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative arylation of potassium cyanoacetate: synthesis of α-diaryl nitriles from aryl halides.

A palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative coupling of potassium cyanoacetate with aryl bromides and chlorides is described. The reaction conditions feature the absence of additional strong inorganic bases and provide ester functional group tolerance. With Pd(dba)(2) and XPhos ligand as the catalyst system, α-diaryl nitriles can be obtained in good yields.