I often stumble across interesting chemistry when I peruse my twitter feed. It’s not only rich in new chemistry highlights and ASAP links to journal articles but also chemists sharing their own experiences with both new and existing methodology- good, bad, and sometimes with pictures!- a dimension missing from just reading peer-reviewed journal articles and,

This perspective article, from workers at Imperial College London and Pfizer, Cambridge, reviews the literature on site-selectivity in S-M coupling reactions for a wide variety of heterocycles on a case-by-case basis. It is shown that experimental parameters can critically impact the dominant catalytic species in solution and its ability to undergo the site-selectivity determining oxidative

Cyanation of aromatic/heteroaromatic halides/pseudohalides is still not always a straightforward transformation, especially if the reaction needs to be scaled up. 2 Ar-X  +  Zn(CN)2  ®  2 ArCN  +  ZnX2 Workers at BMS have recently published a paper where they describe an improved protocol for this transformation1. They found that Pd2(dba)3 with XantPhos, Zn(CN)2 and i-Pr2NEt