As solvent for this and other electron-rich phenylboronic acids, CD3CN was best suited, in contrast to the BHC reactions which did not proceed well in solvents other than DMSO and DMF. CH3CN led to lower conversion and additional by-products. This might be due to an unusually large isotope effect in the removal of a D from CD3CN; such large effects have been observed before for other C-H acidic systems. DMSO, DMF, toluene, water, THF, DME, and dioxane were not suitable as solvents for this reaction, in part because of poor solubility of (Bu4N)2[B12H11I]. Also, in contrast to BHC and Kumada alkyne coupling, pure thermal heating was better than microwave heating. As boron group, boronic acid, its pinacol ester, and its KBF3 analogue worked equally well.