On the Unique Reactivity of Pd(OAc)2with Organic Azides: Expedient Synthesis of Nitriles and Imines

Organic azides are well-established as versatile compounds that can act as precursors of different heterocycles (triazoles, triazolines, tetrazoles, etc.) or other nitrogen-containing compounds, such as amines (Staudinger reduction, Curtius rearrangement) or imines (Schmidt rearrangement, aza-Wittig reaction).1 Besides the ubiquitous copper-catalysed azide–alkyne cycloaddition reaction,2 two applications of organic azides have recently attracted the interest of the synthetic community: 1) the preparation of aziridines through the generation of nitrenes3 and 2) the synthesis of nitriles. We were particularly interested in the latter application, owing to the importance of the cyano group in …