Considerable progress has been made over the past decade in transition-metal-catalyzed CÀH bond functionalization of arenes and heteroarenes.[1] The pioneering work of Larock showed that palladium could catalyze the addition reaction of electron-rich arenes with polar nitriles to afford arylketones.[2] This work was subsequently followed up by a number of reports including the addition of arylboronic acids,[3] arylhalides,[4] and benzoic acids [5] ...