Potassium Cyanide → trans-3-(beta-Cyanostyryl)-2,2-dimethyl-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid, alpha-cyano-m-(p-chlorophenoxy)benzyl ester

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

Thionyl chloride (1.61 ml, 2.6 g; 0.022 mole), 3-(β-cyanostyryl)-2,2-dimethyl-cyclopropanecarboxylic acid (4.82 g; 0.02 mole) and toluene are mixed and heated at 100° C. for 1 hour. The reaction mixture is cooled to 25° C. and a solution of m-(p-chlorophenoxy)benzaldehyde (4.65 g; 0.02 mole) and 18-crown-6 (0.49 g; 0.002 mole) in toluene (10 ml) is added. To this reaction mixture a solution of potassium cyanide (2.6 g; 0.04 mole) in water (6 ml) is added slowly while maintaining the temperature between 20°-25° C. The reaction mixture is then stirred for 18 hours at room temperature. The resultant black reaction mixture is poured in water and extracted with ether (3×). The combined ether extracts are washed with water, 10% hydrochloric acid, 10% sodium bicarbonate, water and saturated sodium chloride solution. The ether layer is dried over sodium sulfate and evaporated in vacuo to leave a brown gum. This gum is purified by dry column chromatography (silica gel; eluent: 1:1 methylene chloride:hexane) to afford the title product, a yellow glass (1.0 g, 8.6%).

Provenance & Evidence