LETTER
Conversion of Electron-Rich Aromatics into Aromatic Nitriles
1069
first step (entry 17). The reason is as follows: the initial
formation of aromatic N,N-dimethyliminium chloride by
the reaction of benzothiophene with POCl3 and DMF did
not occur at all, because the electron density on the aro-
matics was not sufficiently high. Moreover, 1-cyanonaph-
thalene, 4-cyanobiphenyl, and 2,5-dimethoxybenzonitrile
were not formed at all by the present method with naph-
thalene, biphenyl, and 1,4-dimethoxybenzene, respective-
ly, even at 100 °C in the first step. Practically, the
Vilsmeier–Haack reaction of benzothiophene, naphtha-
lene, biphenyl, and 1,4-dimethoxybenzene did not occur
at all.
Acknowledgment
Financial support in the form of a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Rese-
arch (No. 20550033) from the Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science, and Technology in Japan, the Iodine Research Pro-
ject in Chiba University, and the Futaba Electronics Memorial
Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.
References and Notes
(1) Fabiani, M. E. Drug News Perspect. 1999, 12, 207.
(2) (a) Friedrick, K.; Wallensfels, K. The Chemistry of the
Cyano Group; Rappoport, Z., Ed.; Wiley Interscience: New
York, 1970. (b) North, M. Comprehensive Organic
Functional Group Transformation; Katritzky, A. R.; Meth-
Cohn, O.; Rees, C. W., Eds.; Pergamon: Oxford, 1995.
(c) Murahashi, S.-I. Synthesis from Nitriles with Retention of
the Cyano Group, In Science of Synthesis, Vol. 19; Georg
Thieme Verlag: Stuttgart, 2004, 345–402. (d) Collier, S. J.;
Langer, P. Application of Nitriles as Reagents for Organic
Synthesis with Loss of the Nitrile Functionality, In Science of
Synthesis, Vol. 19; Georg Thieme Verlag: Stuttgart, 2004,
403–425.
The plausible reaction mechanism is shown in Scheme 1.
The initial step involves the Vilsmeier–Haack reaction to
form aromatic N,N-dimethyliminium salt I. Once the aro-
matic N,N-dimethyliminium salt I is formed, it reacts
smoothly with ammonia to form the corresponding aro-
matic imine II, which further reacts with molecular iodine
to generate the corresponding aromatic N-iodoimine III.
The elimination of HI from aromatic N-iodoimine III rap-
idly occurs in aqueous ammonia to provide the corre-
sponding aromatic nitrile.9
(3) Comprehensive Organic Transformations; Larock, R. C.,
Ed.; Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, 1989, 976–993.
(4) Sandmeyer, T. Ber. 1884, 17, 2650.
(5) (a) Sharman, W. M.; Van Lier, J. E. in Porphyrin
Handbook, Vol. 15; Kadish, E.; Smith, K. M.; Guilard, R.,
Eds.; Academic Press: New York, 2003, 1. (b) Weissman,
S. A.; Zewge, D.; Chen, C. J. Org. Chem. 2005, 70, 1508.
(c) Littke, A.; Soumeillant, M.; Kaltenbach, R. F. III.;
Cherney, R. J.; Tarby, C. M.; Kiau, S. Org. Lett. 2007, 9,
1711. (d) Martin, M. T.; Liu, B.; Cooley, B. E. Jr.; Eaddy,
J. F. Tetrahedron Lett. 2007, 48, 2555. (e) Nandurkar, N.
S.; Bhanage, B. M. Tetrahedron 2008, 64, 3655. (f) Iqbal,
Z.; Lyubimtsev, A.; Hanack, M. Synlett 2008, 2287.
(g) Chen, G.; Weng, J.; Zheng, Z.; Zhu, X.; Cai, Y.; Cai, J.;
Wan, Y. Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2008, 3524. (h) Schareina, T.;
Zapf, A.; Cotte, A.; Müller, N.; Beller, M. Synthesis 2008,
3351. (i) Buono, F. G.; Chidambaram, R.; Mueller, R. H.;
Waltermire, R. E. Org. Lett. 2008, 10, 5325.
1) POCl3, DMF, warm
2) I2, aq NH3, r.t.
Ar
H
Ar
C
N
+
2 Cl–
Ar CH=NMe
– HI
I
NH3 – HNMe2
I
I2
Ar CH
NH
Ar
C
N
– HI
II
H
III
(j) Chattopadhyay, K.; Dey, R.; Ranu, B. C. Tetrahedron
Lett. 2009, 50, 3164.
Scheme 1 Possible reaction pathway for nitrile
(6) (a) Chen, X.; Hao, X.-S.; Goodhue, C. E.; Yu, J.-Q. J. Am.
Chem. Soc. 2006, 128, 6790. (b) Jia, X.; Yang, D.; Zhang,
S.; Cheng, J. Org. Lett. 2009, 11, 4716.
(7) (a) Gerhard, L. Ber. 1967, 100, 2719. (b) Gerhard, L. Org.
Synth. 1970, 50, 52.
In conclusion, various electron-rich aromatics, such as
1,3-dimethoxybenzene, 1,3,5-trimethoxybenzene, 1-
methoxynaphthalene,
2-methoxynaphthalene,
1,5-
(8) Reviews: (a) Togo, H.; Iida, S. Synlett 2006, 2159.
(b) Togo, H. J. Synth. Org. Chem. 2008, 66, 652.
(9) (a) Mori, N.; Togo, H. Synlett 2004, 880. (b) Mori, N.;
Togo, H. Synlett 2005, 1456. (c) Mori, N.; Togo, H.
Tetrahedron 2005, 61, 5915. (d) Ishihara, M.; Togo, H.
Synlett 2006, 227. (e) Iida, S.; Togo, H. Synlett 2006, 2633.
(f) Ishihara, M.; Togo, H. Tetrahedron 2007, 63, 1474.
(g) Iida, S.; Togo, H. Tetrahedron 2007, 63, 8274. (h) Iida,
S.; Togo, H. Synlett 2008, 1639. (i) Iida, S.; Ohmura, R.;
Togo, H. Tetrahedron 2009, 65, 6257.
(10) (a) Misono, A.; Osa, T.; Koda, S. Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn.
1966, 39, 854. (b) Talukdar, S.; Hsu, J.; Chou, T.; Fang, J.
Tetrahedron Lett. 2001, 42, 1103.
(11) Typical Experimental Procedure: To a flask containing
1,3,5-trimethoxybenzene (1009.1 mg, 6 mmol) were added
POCl3 (1011.9 mg, 6.6 mmol) and DMF (1754.1 mg, 24
mmol) at 0 °C. After being stirred for 3 h at 40 °C, I2 (3045.7
mg, 12 mmol) and aq ammonia (12 mL, 28–30%) were
added to the reaction mixture. The obtained mixture was
dimethoxynaphthalene, aniline, indole, thiophene, furan,
and pyrrole, could be smoothly converted into the corre-
sponding aromatic nitriles in good yields, by treatment
with POCl3 and DMF, followed by the reaction with mo-
lecular iodine in aqueous ammonia. The present reaction
is a novel metal-free one-pot conversion of aromatics into
the corresponding aromatic nitriles, although the reaction
is limited to electron-rich aromatics. The advantages of
the present reaction are operational simplicity, low cost,
low toxicity, and easy availability of reaction materials.
Therefore, we believe that the present reactions are a use-
ful and environmentally benign method for the prepara-
tion of aromatic nitriles from aromatics directly. Further
synthetic study of the present method is underway in this
laboratory.
Synlett 2010, No. 7, 1067–1070 © Thieme Stuttgart · New York