Abstract: Acetonitrile reacts with excess tert-butyllithium in ether at-78” to form LizCzHN and 2 equiv of isobutane. With aldehydes and ketones, L i GHN gives diadducts,(LiOCR2) 2CHCN, in high yields. These adducts are converted to the corresponding trimethylsilyl derivatives with trimethylchlorosilane. L i GHN, in the presence of excess base, and trimethylchlorosilane in tetrahydrofuran give a mixture of tris (trimethylsily1) ethynylamine ( ...
