Indeed, anodic oxidation of biarylmethane derivatives delivered particularly stabilized carbocation on which an electron-rich arene could be added during the electrolysis in few cases 7 or in the absence of electric current (cation-pool method) 8 to deliver triarylmethane derivatives. Anodically generated less stable benzylic carbocations from monoarylmethane derivatives could be in-situ trapped by a stabilizing agent during the electrolysis and then an electron rich arene could be added to deliver biarylmethanes (stabilized cation pool method). 9 Electrogenerated benzylic radicals could also react in a Minisci-type process with heteroarenes to achieve a C-H bond functionalization of the latter. In an other hand, electrochemical nickel-catalysed arylation of electron-rich primary benzylic C(sp 3 )-H bonds with electron-deficient arylbromides were deployed in a paired-electrolysis process via reductive regeneration of the nickel catalyst at the cathode. 11 Electron-deficient aryl nitrile derivatives appeared to be pertinent partners to develop a benzylic arylation via convergent paired-electrolysis 4a and related transformations have been achieved under photochemical irradiation. The cathodic reduction of an electron-deficient aryl nitrile 3 such as 1,4-cyanobenze is known to produce a persistent radical-anion B which could add to electrophilic species. Indeed, such concept has been recently employed in convergent paired-electrolysis involving the arylation of electron-deficient intermediates produced by anodic oxidation 15 such as the -arylation of amines, 15a alkenes, 15a,b benzylic alcohols 15c and benzylic ethers, 15d the decarboxylative arylation of carboxylic acid 15b and deboronative arylation of trifluoroborate salts. 15b In addition, the hydroxylation--arylation of benzylic C(sp 3 )-H substrates into 5 has also been very recently reported via the preliminary oxidation into a benzylic alcohol. Therefore, it appears that the present challenge would be to favour the coupling of the persistent aryl nitrile radical anion with the transient benzylic radical over the evolution of the latter into the corresponding benzylic alcohol that could lead to overoxidized products 5 or 6. Results and discussion. To test, the feasibility of this approach, we selected ethyl biphenyl 1a and 1,4-dicyanobenzene 3a as substrates to generate 4a (Table ). Upon evaluation of the parameters of the reaction, the optimal conditions appear to be the electrolysis in an undivided cell at a constant current of 6.25 mA/cm2 with a graphite anode and a nickel cathode in a 1:1 mixture of acetonitrile and THF with tetrabutylammonium tosylate as electrolyte and pivaldehyde as a trap of the released cyanide ion at room temperature: a 58% yield of 4a was obtained from equimolar amounts of 1a and 3a (entry 1 with 19% recovery of 1a) while 60% was obtained with an excess of 1a (entry 2). Performing the reaction under argon is critical since under air, only 12% of 4a were obtained along with 47% of unreacted 1a with 14% and 4% of respectively ketone 7a and benzyl alcohol 8a which are supposedly the product of the reaction of benzyl radical A with oxygen (entry 3). In the absence of pivaldehyde as a scavenger for the toxic cyanide ion, the yield diminished to 48% (entry 4). The survey of solvents indicated that the association of THF and acetonitrile indeed played a crucial role in this electrochemical arylation protocol. Diminished yields were obtained when pure acetonitrile (47% of 1a recovered) or THF (85% recovery of 1a) were used (entries 5,6). The ratio of THF and acetonitrile also had an influences on the yield (entries 7, 8). DMF was also a suitable solvent to promote the reaction but with a moderate yield of 39% (entry 9). The nature of the electrolyte was critical and in particular the anion since replacing the tosylate anion of n-BuNOTs by a perchlorate, a tetrafluoroborate or a triflate led to almost no formation of the desired product which is explained by the no reactivity of 1a (entries 10-12). On the other hand, the tetrabutylammonium cation could be substituted by a tetraethylammonium with a moderately decreased yield (entry 13). The effect of the material of the electrodes was also investigated.