Hydrocarbalkoxylation of acrylonitrile with stoichiometric amounts of alcohols in the presence of catalytic amounts of CO&CO)~ and pyridine bases leads to 2, 4-dicyano-2- methylbutanoic acid esters. The yield of these Michael adducts shows a maximum as a function of the pyridine/cobalt ratio. Analogous reactions using equimolar amounts of alcohol, acrylonitrile, and an other activated olefin result in products with at least three ...
