Efficient and Clean Nickel Catalyzed α‐Allylation Reaction of Nitriles

A clean method has been developed for the α‐allylation of phenyl and alpha alkyl phenyl acetonitrile with allylic alcohols. The reaction is catalyzed by nickel complexes in situ generated from a combination of Ni(cod) 2 and the dppf ligand and performed at 80 °C in methanol as reaction solvent. Accordingly to this simple and base‐free protocol that only yields water as a side‐product, many allylic nitriles were synthetized with good yields.