Cobalt(II) chloride catalyzed one-pot synthesis of α-aminonitriles

• Surya K. De

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2005, 1, No. 8, doi:10.1186/1860-5397-1-8

• synthesis of α-aminonitriles. In continuation of our work to develop new organic transformations, [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] I report herein that cobalt(II) chloride which acts as a mild Lewis acid might be a useful and inexpensive catalyst for the synthesis α-aminonitrile. Although cobalt(II) chloride

• has been extensively used as a mild catalyst for a plethora of organic transformations, [18][19][20] there are no examples of the use of cobalt(II) chloride as catalyst for the synthesis of α-aminonitriles. Results and discussion The treatment of benzaldehyde and aniline with KCN in the presence of a

• , efficient, and practical method for the synthesis of α-aminonitriles through a one-pot three component coupling of aldehydes, amines, and potassium cyanide using a catalytic amount of cobalt(II) chloride. The major feature of this method is that it is truly a one-pot protocol that does not need a separate