To a 10 mL microwave reaction flask were added 2-chloro-5-fluoropyrimidine (2.0 g, 15.09 mmol), tris(dibenzylideneacetone)dipalladium (Pd2(dba)3, 0.549 g, 0.6 mmol), 1,1'-bis(diphenylphosphino)ferrocene (DPPF, 0.67 g, 1.21 mmol), zinc cyanide (1.15 g, 9.81 mmol) and zinc powder (0.237 mg, 3.62 mmol). The reaction flask was evacuated and displaced three times with nitrogen followed by the addition of anhydrous dimethylacetamide (DMA). The reaction flask was placed in a Personal Chemistry microwave reactor and the reaction was heated at 100 °C for 10 hours. Upon completion of the reaction, the reaction mixture was diluted with ethyl acetate (EtOAc) and washed three times with saturated saline. The organic layer was separated, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and concentrated under reduced pressure. The resulting crude product was purified by silica gel column chromatography (ISCO Combiflash system, ethyl acetate/hexane gradient elution) to afford 2-cyano-5-fluoropyrimidine as a milky white solid (1.50 g, 80% yield). The product was analyzed by GC-MS showing molecular ion peak m/z 123 (M+); 1H NMR (CDCl3) δ 8.80 (s, 2H).
