Nitriles, acid catalyzed addition salts

Reactions with Oxiranes, Oxetanes, and Aziridines. Lewis acids, lanthanide salts, and titanium tetraisopropoxide or aluminum isopropoxide catalyze the reactions of cyanotri-methylsilane with oxiranes, oxetanes, and aziridines, yielding ring-opened products. The nature of the products and the regio-selectivity of the reaction are primarily dependent on the nature of the Lewis acid, the substitution pattern in the substrate, and the reaction conditions. Monosubstituted oxiranes undergo regiospe-cific cleavage to form 3-(trimethylsiloxy)nitriles when refluxed with a slight excess of cyanotrimethylsilane in the presence of a catalytic amount of potassium cyanide-18-crown-6 complex (eqs 8-10). The addition of cyanide occurs exclusively at the least-substituted carbon. 

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