Alkyl cyanides amides from

Since alkyl cyanides are readily available from the interaction of alkyl halides with sodium or potassium cyanide in aqueous alcoholic solution (Expts 5.157 and 5.158), their hydrolysis to carboxylic acids is a valuable synthetic method. Aqueous alkaline or acidic conditions may be used. The reaction proceeds via the intermediate formation of an amide. Experimental conditions may be selected to interrupt the hydrolysis at the amide stage (Expt 6.167). 

As these compounds all possess a nitrogen-containing functional feature, it is worth pointing out that they arise from alkyl halides (or methanesulphonates) in the case of azides and cyanides, or from carboxylic acid chlorides (in the case of amides). 

A solution of sodamide in liquid ammonia (essentially the amide NHj ion) is a very powerful alkylation catalyst, enabling condensations to be carried out with ease and in good yield which are otherwise either impossible or proceed with difficulty and are accompanied by considerable by-products. Thus 3-alkylpjTidines, otherwise inaccessible, are easily prepared from 3-picoline (see 3-n-amylpyridine in Section V,20). Also benzyl cyanide (I) and cyclohexyX bromide give a- r/ohexylphenylacetonitrile (II) ... 

Nitdles may be prepared by several methods (1). The first nitrile to be prepared was propionitdle, which was obtained in 1834 by distilling barium ethyl sulfate with potassium cyanide. This is a general preparation of nitriles from sulfonate salts and is referred to as the Pelou2e reaction (2). Although not commonly practiced today, dehydration of amides has been widely used to produce nitriles and was the first commercial synthesis of a nitrile. The reaction of alkyl hahdes with sodium cyanide to produce nitriles (eq. 1) also is a general reaction with wide appHcabiUty ... 

Heterocyclic structures analogous to the intermediate complex result from azinium derivatives and amines, hydroxide or alkoxides, or Grignard reagents from quinazoline and orgahometallics, cyanide, bisulfite, etc. from various heterocycles with amide ion, metal hydrides,or lithium alkyls from A-acylazinium compounds and cyanide ion (Reissert compounds) many other examples are known. Factors favorable to nucleophilic addition rather than substitution reactions have been discussed by Albert, who has studied examples of easy covalent hydration of heterocycles. 

The cyanides 246, obtained from aldehydes R CHO (R1 = alkyl, Ph or PhCH=CH), amines HNR2R3 (aniline or morpholine etc.) and potassium cyanide undergo autoxidation in the presence of potassium r-butoxide to give amides (equation 89)259. 

Di-2-pyridyl sulphite (343) (from 2-pyridone and thionyl chloride in the presence of triethylamine) transforms primary aliphatic and aromatic amines RNH2 into N-sulphinylamines RN=S=0 and it dehydrates amides ArCONH2 to aryl cyanides, aldehyde oximes RCH=NOH (R = Cxlf 7. 4-MeOCgH4 or PhCH=CH) to the cyanides RCN and A-alkyl- and TV-ary Iformamides RNHCHO to isocyanides RNC. Aliphatic and aromatic... 

The direct synthesis of aryl- or alkyl nitriles from cyanide and organohalide precursors is revered in synthetic chemistry, as the nitriles represent a flexible functionality that can easily be converted into (for example) carboxylic acids, esters, amides, amidines, amines and various hetero cycles [67], such as thiazoles, oxazolidones, triazoles and tetrazoles [68]. The tetrazole group... 

Although nitriles lack an acyl group, they are considered acid derivatives because they hydrolyze to carboxylic acids. Nitriles are frequently made from carboxylic acids (with the same number of carbons) by conversion to primary amides followed by dehydration. They are also made from primary alkyl halides and tosylates (adding one carbon) by nucleophilic substitution with cyanide ion. Aryl cyanides can be made by the Sandmeyer reaction of an aryldiazonium salt with cuprous cyanide. a-Hydroxynitriles (cyanohydrins) are made by the reaction of ketones and aldehydes with HCN. 

This is a new reaction for the preparation of N-alkyl amides. Nitriles and various substituted cyano compounds are treated with active olefins in the presence of sulfuric acid. Reaction occurs at room temperature in glacial acetic acid or dibutyl ether solution. The use of hydrogen cyanide in the reaction leads to the formation of N-alkylformamides. /-Butyl alcohol and sodium cyanide are used in place of the olefin and hydrogen cyanide in the preparation of N-/-butylfotmamide (50%). The reaction has been extended to the synthesis of N-alkyl diamides from dinitriles and olefins or alcohols. ... 

Arylmethylamines can be oxidized to the corresponding arylamides by formation of a Schiff base with 2,6-di-t-butylbenzoquinone and base-catalysed oxygenation. Allenic alcohols are oxidized to allenic amides by nickel peroxide at -20 °C in ethereal ammonia. N-Alkyl-amides can be prepared from aldehydes in a four-step procedure consisting of imine formation and subsequent reactions with N-chlorosuccinimide, potassium cyanide, and finally alcoholic HCl. ... 

Butylation of phenylacetonitrile with aqueous NaOH, as shown in Scheme 25, proceeds faster by use of high DF (>0.5) anion exchange resins.The strongly alkaline conditions degrade the quaternary ammonium ions of the catalyst. Catalyst (64) (1% DVB) is active for alkylation of phenylacetonitrile and benzyl phenyl ketone, and for Williamson ether synthesis, and it is much more stable in base than AERs. AERs in OH form are catalysts for dichlorocyclopropane syntheses from alkenes, chloroform and solid sodium hydroxide, and for dehydration of amides to nitriles. AERs in the appropriate hydroxide, acetate, or cyanide form are catalysts for aldol condensations, Michael reactions, Knoevenagel condensations, cyanoethylations and cyanohydrin syntheses. " ... 

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