Cationic palladium(II)-catalyzed addition of arylboronic acids to nitriles. One-step synthesis of benzofurans from phenoxyacetonitriles.

[Structure: see text] A cationic palladium complex catalyzed addition of arylboronic acids to nitriles to yield aryl ketones with moderate to good yields was developed. A one-step synthesis of benzofurans from phenoxyacetonitriles under the catalysis of [(bpy)Pd+(micro-OH)]2(-OTf)2 or [(bpy)Pd2+(H2O)2](-OTf)2 was developed which showed that the cationic palladium catalyst is highly active for these addition reactions.