Organic letters

Brønsted Acid-Promoted Hydrocyanation of Arylalkenes

A Yanagisawa, T Nezu, S Mohri

Index: Yanagisawa, Arata; Nezu, Tetsuya; Mohri, Shin-Ichiro Organic Letters, 2009 , vol. 11, # 22 p. 5286 - 5289

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Citation Number: 13

Abstract

Nonactivated arylalkenes are effectively converted to tertiary benzylic nitriles in the presence of triflic acid and trimethylsilyl cyanide. The hydrocyanation reactions result in good to excellent yield when electron-donating groups are substituted on the benzene ring. The reaction conditions are mild and relatively safe, notably without need for handling hazardous hydrogen cyanide gas, providing simple and easy access to tertiary benzylic nitriles. The ...