Introduction Cyanohydrin diethyi phosphates are versatile intermediates in synthetic organic chemistryt specially: (a) in the preparation of satura- and a,&unsaturated 3 nitriles from carbonyl compounds by reductive elimination of the phosphate group, (b) for the regiospecific Friedel-Crafts type arylation of aromatic compounds? (c) in the synthesis of y-hydroxy a$-unsaturated nitriles 4bs and @cyan0 a,fhmahnatd ketones5 by [3,3]-sigmatropic
