Conjugated diene complexes hydrocyanation

Hydrocyanation of aliphatic conjugated dienes in the presence of Ni(0) complexes gives diene rearrangement products and /i.y-unsaUiratcd nitriles in 10-90% yields10. Dienes other than 1,3-butadiene do not produce terminal nitriles, implying that the more highly substituted jr-allyl nickel complex is favored. Thus, reaction of 1-phenylbuta-l,3-diene (1) affords ( )-2-methyl-4-phenylbut-3-enenitrile (2) as the sole product (equation 5). The... 

In a proton NMR experiment in which 1,4-pentadiene was added to a solution of HNi[P(OMe)3]4, it was possible to watch the isomerization of 1,4- to 1,3-pentadiene, followed by formation of l,3-dimethyl-7t-allyl complexes (53). The observation of 7t-allyl products in the reaction of the hydride with the conjugated diene, but not in the ff-alkyl intermediates involved in isomerization, illustrates the much greater stability of zr-allyl complexes of nickel compared to tr-alkyls, a feature which is also observed in the hydrocyanation reactions. 

In the first stage Lewis acids are absent and further hydroeyanation of the monoolefm products 3-PN 40 and 2M3BN 41 does not readily oeeur. The monoeyanation of butadiene is similar to HCN addition to olefins. An individual feature of hydrocyanation of conjugated dienes is the intermediate appearance of TT-allylic complexes 43, which participate in the successive carbon-carbon coupling. Equations (12) and (13) demonstrate the reaction of butadiene with the hydrido-nickel complex 42 leading to formation of nitrile 40 (a) and explain the generation of byproducts, i.e., the branched nitrile 41 via an alternative pathway (b) [68-70]. 

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