Potassium Cyanide → 2-(4-Bromo-3-methylphenyl)acetonitrile

Participants

Reaction Steps

1-Bromo-4-(bromomethyl)-2-methylbenzene (45 of crude from step b, 68.2 mmol) dissolved in CH2Cl2 (500 mL) is mixed and stirred with potassium cyanide (24 g, 364 mmol) and N-tetra(n-butyl)ammonium bromide (1.2 g, 3.64 mmol) in distilled water (500 mL). This reaction mixture is stirred vigorously for 6 h. The organic phase is separated, dried over MgSO4, filtered and concentrated. The resulting residue is purified on silica gel using a 0 to 30% gradient of ethyl acetate in heptane to provide the expected product 2-(4-bromo-3-methylphenyl)acetonitrile (12.4 g, 87% over two steps) as a clear yellow oil. 1H NMR (400 MHz, CHLOROFORM-D) δ ppm 2.41 (s, 3H) 3.68 (s, 2H) 7.01 (dd, J=8.50, 2.05 Hz, 1H) 7.21 (d, J=1.37 Hz, 1H) 7.53 (d, J=8.20 Hz, 1H)

Provenance & Evidence