Carbocyanation of trisubstituted olefins via Cu-catalyzed atom transfer radical addition

A regioselective Cu(I)-catalyzed carbocyanation of non-polarized trisubstituted olefins 1 has been achieved by employing chlorinated cyanides 2 as starting materials. The present reaction gives the carbocyanated product 3 through radical-based 1,3-transfer of CN. Consequently, two different carbon units, cyano and chlorocyanomethyl groups, are introduced into the highly substituted olefins, generating consecutive quaternary and tertiary carbons. Since both of the attached carbon units can be used as handles for further synthetic elaborations, the present transformation offers a new synthetic methodology for rapid construction of architecturally complex carboskeletons.