“…Cyanogen bromide serves as an electrophilic cyanation reagent and is effectively activated in the presence of Lewis acidic metals such as GaCl 3 (Scheme , eq 2). , By contrast, cyanogen iodide does not work well as an electrophilic cyanation agent but can be used in combination with a copper catalyst. We have found that a copper catalyst was effective for the reaction of cyanogen iodide with alkynes giving alkynyl cyanides, and that the alkynyl cyanides were obtained through the formation of alkynyl iodides as an intermediate (Scheme , eq 3) . In this contribution, we report a copper-catalyzed anti -selective iodocyanation and dicyanation of alkynes using cyanogen iodide, in which the two reactions were switched simply by changing the reaction conditions (Scheme , eq 4). , …”