Nitriles from carboxylate salts

Hydrolysis of nitriles yields carboxylic acids. The synthesis of nitriles from diazonium salts thus provides us with an excellent route from nitro compounds to carboxylic acids. For example ... 

The reactivity of oxiranes with lithium enoiates and related compounds has been widely explored and reviewed . Dianions derived from carboxylic acids react readily with oxiranes, but the reaction can be slowed by steric hindrance . The reaction of oxiranes with dianions of acetoacetates is greatly accelerated by the addition of BF3 Et20 " . Oxiranes react readily with lithium salts derived from nitriles , malonates and analogues , lithiated oxazolines and lithio enamines . 

Nitriles of the aromatic acids may be obtained fiom the sulfonic acids or from diazonium salts. Hydrolysis of the nitrile produces the carboxylic acid ... 

In an unconventional cyclopentenone synthesis, Negishi cyclised vinyllithiums derived from the 1-iodo- 1-silyl alkenes 103 onto preformed lithium carboxylate salts.57 He later found58 that amides 104 function in this reaction rather better than the carboxylate salts, and that the silyl substituent is not necessary for cyclisation. Nitriles, on the other hand, fail to cyclise. 

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. 

Nitrile synthesis. Sodium salts of carboxylic acids when heated in a sealed tube with cyanogen chloride at 200-300° are converted into the corresponding nitriles, often in high yield. Tracer studies with cyanogen bromide have shown that the carbon dioxide liberated is derived from the cyanogen halide and that the bond... 

The six common groups derived from carboxylic acids are, in decreasing priority after carboxylic acids salts, anhydrides, esters, acyl halides, amides, and nitriles. 

Bing closures of halogenocarbonyl compounds activated by Lewis acids 3,5-Diazapyrylium salts from carboxylic acid chlorides and nitriles... 

Via intermediates Amidines from nitriles via carboxylic acid thioamides and thioiminoester salts... 

Quinaldic acids and aldehydes from l-acyl-l,2-dihydroquinaldo-2-nitriles N-Heterocyclic carboxylic acids from their salts... 

Similar treatment of an arenediazonium salt with CuCN yields the nitrile, ArCN, which can then be further converted into other functional groups such as carboxyl, for example, Sandmeyer reaction of o-methylbenzenediazonium bisulfate with CuCN yields o-methylbenzonitrile, which can be hydrolyzed to give o-methylbenzoic acid. This product can t be prepared from o-xvlene by the usual side-chain oxidation route because both methyl groups would be oxidized. 

The addition of dry HCl to a mixture of a nitrile and an alcohol in the absence of water leads to the hydrochloride salt of an imino ester (imino esters are also called imidates and imino ethers). This reaction is called the Pinner synthesisThe salt can be converted to the free imino ester by treatment with a weak base such as sodium bicarbonate, or it can be hydrolyzed with water and an acid catalyst to the corresponding carboxylic ester. If the latter is desired, water may be present from the beginning, in which case aqueous HCl can be used and the need for gaseous HCl is eliminated. Imino esters can also be prepared from nitriles with basic catalysts. ... 

Optically active 3-arylisoxazoline-5-carboxylic acid derivatives 403 or 404 have been, prepared by the reaction of (S)- or (/ )-3-acryloyl-4-benzyl-5,5-dimethyloxazolidin-2-one (405 or 406) with nitrile oxides, obtained from benzo-hydroximoyl chloride and its substituted derivatives in the presence of a catalytic amount of metal salt, for example, Yb(OTf)3 (445). This procedure improves the diastereoselectivity of compounds 403 or 404, which are industrially useful as intermediates for various drugs and agrochemicals. It also enables the amount... 

Sandmeyer s synthesis of aromatic nitriles is far more elegant than the removal of water from the ammonium salts of carboxylic acids, which latter reaction is also applicable to benzene derivatives. In particular, the former synthesis permits of the preparation of carboxylic acids via the nitriles, and so provides a complete substitute for Kolbe s synthesis (alkyl halide and potassium cyanide), which is inapplicable to aromatic compounds. The simplest example is the conversion of aniline into benzoic add. The converse transformation is Hofmann s degradation (benzamide aniline, see p. 152). 

Monolayers are best formed from water-insoluble molecules. This is expressed well by the title of Gaines s classic book Insoluble Monolayers at Liquid-Gas Interfaces [104]. Carboxylic acids (7-13 in Table 1, for example), sulfates, quaternary ammonium salts, alcohols, amides, and nitriles with carbon chains of 12 or longer meet this requirement well. Similarly, well-behaved monolayers have been formed from naturally occurring phospholipids (14-17 in Table 1, for example), as well as from their synthetic analogs (18,19 in Table 1, for example). More recently, polymerizable surfactants (1-4, 20, 21 in Table 1, for example) [55, 68, 72, 121], preformed polymers [68, 70, 72,122-127], liquid crystalline polymers [128], buckyballs [129, 130], gramicidin [131], and even silica beads [132] have been demonstrated to undergo monolayer formation on aqueous solutions. 

Salts of aliphatic or aromatic carboxylic acids can be converted to the corresponding nitriles by heating with BrCN or CICN. Despite appearances, this is not a substitution reaction. When Rl4COO" was used, the label appeared in the nitrile, not in the C02,753 and optical activity in R was retained.754 The acyl isocyanate RC0N=C=0 could be isolated from the reaction mixture hence the following mechanism was proposed 753... 

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