100136-24-1Relevant academic research and scientific papers
A one-pot electrophilic cyanation–functionalization strategy for the synthesis of disubstituted malononitriles
Mills, L. Reginald,Rousseaux, Sophie A.L.
, p. 4298 - 4306 (2019)
Malononitriles are valuable synthetic intermediates for many applications, including the synthesis of herbicides and other biologically active molecules, and the synthesis of chiral ligands for asymmetric catalysis. This article describes the development of a procedure for the conversion of primary nitriles to malononitriles using dimethylmalononitrile, a commercial, non-toxic, carbon-bound source of electrophilic cyanide. This procedure avoids the use of toxic cyanide or malononitrile as a starting material. This protocol is further applied to the dicyanation of benzyl Grignard reagents, generated from benzyl bromides, yielding fully functionalized malononitriles from a nitrile-free precursor.
