Potassium Cyanide → 2-(3-Difluoromethoxyphenyl)-2-hydroxyacetonitrile

Participants

Reaction Steps

To 3-difluoromethoxybenzaldehyde (1.77 g, 10 mmol) in ethyl acetate (25 mL) was added a solution of KCN (2.0 g) and NaHSO3 (3.2 g) dissolved in H2O (25 mL). It was left stirring overnight before it was extracted with ethyl acetate (2×50 mL). The combined organic extracts were dried and concentrated. The crude product was purified by silica gel chromatography to give 131A (1.85 g, 92% yield) as an oil.

Provenance & Evidence