A mixture of 2-bromo-3-((tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)methyl)pyridine (30.1 g, 100.0 mmol, 1 eq.) and Zn(CN)2 (23.5 g, 200.0 mmol, 2.0 eq.) in DMF (100.0 mL) was purged with N2 for 5 min and added Pd(PPh3)4 (5.78 g, 5.0 mmol, 0.05 eq.). The mixture was heated at 120° C. for 2 h under N2, cooled, filtered, concentrated, and purified on silica gel using a mixture of EtOAc and hexanes as eluent to give 3-((tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)methyl)picolinonitrile (20.4 g, 82%) as a colorless oil. MS (ESI) m/z 249.1 [M+H]+.
