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Acetone Cyanohydrin: A Convenient Alternative of Toxic Sodium Cyanide/Acetic Acid for Oxidative Cyanation of Tertiary Amines

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Abstract

Acetone cyanohydrin was found to be a facile, convenient and comparatively safer alternative to toxic sodium cyanide/acetic acid system for generating in situ HCN for the oxidative cyanation of tertiary amines to α-aminonitriles in high yields with hydrogen peroxide using RuCl3 as catalyst. In addition organic nature of acetone cyanohydrin makes it more suitable for an organic transformation since it is readily soluble in reaction medium and can be added in a controlled manner.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Director, IIP for his kind permission to publish these results. We thank Analytical Sciences Division, IIP for IR and GCMS analyses. SV thanks CSIR, New Delhi for his fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chemical Sciences Division, Indian Institute of Petroleum (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Mohkampur, Dehradun, 248005, India

    Sanny Verma, Suman L. Jain & Bir Sain

Authors
  1. Sanny Verma
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  2. Suman L. Jain
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  3. Bir Sain
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Correspondence to Suman L. Jain.

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Verma, S., Jain, S.L. & Sain, B. Acetone Cyanohydrin: A Convenient Alternative of Toxic Sodium Cyanide/Acetic Acid for Oxidative Cyanation of Tertiary Amines. Catal Lett 141, 882–885 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-011-0582-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-011-0582-6

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