Regioselective formal hydrocyanation of allenes: synthesis of β,γ-unsaturated nitriles with α-all-carbon quaternary centers

• Seeun Lim,
• Teresa Kim and
• Yunmi Lee

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2025, 21, 800–806, doi:10.3762/bjoc.21.63

• conditions and shows broad applicability to di- and trisubstituted allenes. Its practicality is demonstrated through the gram-scale synthesis and functional group transformations of amines, amides, and lactams, emphasizing its versatility and synthetic significance. Keywords: α-quaternary nitrile; Cu

• , achieving complete conversion within 30 min and yielding the desired α-quaternary nitrile 3a in 95% yield. Moreover, no byproducts, such as regioisomeric nitriles or derivatives from over-addition of allylaluminum, were observed. After having established the optimized reaction conditions, the substrate