Dimethylformamide → N-Cyano-N-vinylbenzylacetamide

Participants

Reaction Steps

23.3 g (0.2 mol+10% excess) of the sodium salt of acetylcyanamide and 30.5 g (0.2 mol) of vinylbenzyl chloride (technical mixture of isomers containing approx. 40% of the para-component and 60% of the meta-component) are reacted in 100 ml of dimethylformamide for 8 hours at 48°-50° C., when the reaction is complete the mixture is filtered with suction, the filtrate is introduced into 300 g of ice and 500 ml of water while stirring vigorously and the mixture is then extracted with ethyl acetate. The ethyl acetate solution is dried with anhydrous sodium sulfate and filtered with suction, the filtrate is decolourised with active charcoal, the solution is filtered and the filtrate is concentrated in vacuo at 40° C. on a rotary evaporator. The residue is dried to constant weight at 40° C./0.13 mbar. This gives 34.9 g (87.1% of theory) of a brownish, viscous liquid, which is purified by bulb tube distillation at 130°-145° C./0.7 mbar.

Provenance & Evidence