Aerobic ruthenium-catalyzed oxidative cyanation of tertiary amines with sodium cyanide

SI Murahashi, N Komiya, H Terai…

Index: Murahashi, Shun-Ichi; Komiya, Naruyoshi; Terai, Hiroyuki; Nakae, Takahiro Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2003 , vol. 125, # 50 p. 15312 - 15313

Full Text: HTML

Citation Number: 338

Abstract

RuCl3-catalyzed oxidative cyanation of tertiary amines with sodium cyanide under molecular oxygen (1 atm) at 60° C gives the corresponding α-aminonitriles, which are versatile synthetic intermediates of various compounds such as amino acids and unsymmetrical 1, 2-diamines, in excellent yields. This reaction is clean and should be an environmentally benign and useful process.