Potassium Cyanide → alpha-Amino-5-pyrimidineacetonitrile

Participants

Reaction Steps

Potassium cyanide (651 mg, 10 mmol) and ammonium chloride (588 mg, 11 mmol) are dissolved in water (2.6 mL) with stirring. Pyrimidine-5-carboxaldehyde (1.08 g, 10 mmol) in methanol (2.6 mL) is added to the clear solution rapidly, giving first a yellow, then a dark red solution, and mildly exothermic reaction. The water is evaporated after three hours stirring, and the reddish residue is chromatographed (silica, chloroform/methanol) to give a yellow solid 1.1 g (82%) identified as product ms m/z=134.

Provenance & Evidence