Acetonitrile → 4,4,5,5,5-Pentafluoro-3-oxopentanenitrile

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

A stirred suspension of sodium hydride (15.6 g of a 60% dispersion in mineral oil, 0.39 mol) in THF (100 mL) was heated to 50° C. To this was added a mixture of ethyl 2,2,3,3,3-pentafluoropropanoate (25 g, 0.13 mol) and dry acetonitrile (5.3 g, 0.13 mol), dropwise, and the resulting colorless suspension was heated at 50° C. for 4 h. After cooling to rt the reaction mixture was concentrated under reduced pressure and the residue poured into water (100 mL) and extracted with diethyl ether (100 mL). The aqueous layer was separated, acidified to pH 2 with aqueous 2 M HCl and extracted with diethyl ether (2×200 mL). The combined diethyl ether layers were dried over magnesium sulfate then concentrated under reduced pressure to afford 4,4,5,5,5-pentafluoro-3-oxopentanenitrile an orange oil (17 g) which was used in the next step without further purification.

Provenance & Evidence