Rhodium-catalyzed silylation and intramolecular arylation of nitriles via the silicon-assisted cleavage of carbon-cyano bonds.

A rhodium-catalyzed silylation reaction of carbon-cyano bonds using disilane has been developed. Under these catalytic conditions, carbon-cyano bonds in aryl, alkenyl, allyl, and benzyl cyanides bearing a variety of functional groups can be silylated. The observation of an enamine side product in the silylation of benzyl cyanides and related stoichiometric studies indicate that the carbon-cyano bond cleavage proceeds through the deinsertion of silyl isocyanide from eta(2)-iminoacyl complex B. Knowledge gained from these studies has led to the development of a new intramolecular biaryl coupling reaction in which aryl cyanides and aryl chlorides are cross-coupled.