Journal of Saudi Chemical Society (2016) 20, S202–S210
King Saud University
Journal of Saudi Chemical Society
www.ksu.edu.sawww.sciencedirect.com
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
An efficient one-pot three-component synthesis
of a-amino nitriles via Strecker reaction catalysed
by bismuth(III) nitrate
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9944093020; fax: +91 4172
266487.
E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Sheik Mansoor).
Peer review under responsibility of King Saud University.
Production and hosting by Elsevier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jscs.2012.10.009
1319-6103 ª 2012 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
S. Sheik Mansoor *, K. Aswin, K. Logaiya, S.P.N. Sudhan
Research Department of Chemistry, C. Abdul Hakeem College, Melvisharam 632 509, Tamil Nadu, India
Received 23 July 2012; accepted 9 October 2012
Available online 7 November 2012
KEYWORDS
Bismuth nitrate;
Amino nitriles;
One-pot synthesis;
Strecker reaction
Abstract A convenient and efficient one-pot method for the synthesis of a variety of a-amino
nitriles from aldehydes, amines and trimethylsilyl cyanide (TMSCN) in the presence of a catalytic
amount of Bi(NO3)3 at room temperature in acetonitrile (MeCN) is described. The significant fea-
tures of this method are simple work-up procedure, inexpensive and non-toxic catalyst, shorter
reaction times and excellent product yields. The catalyst Bi(NO3)3 can be reused. The reusability
of the catalyst has been studied for the synthesis of various amino nitriles.ª 2012 Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access
article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
1. Introduction
One-pot multi-component condensation reactions are impor-tant and attractive due to the formation of multi-bonds in
one pot, high atom economy, mild and simplified conditionsand environmentally benign friendliness. Strecker reaction asthe first multi-component reaction (MCR), which was discov-ered in 1850, represented one of the most important reactions,
especially from the life science viewpoint (Strecker, 1850). Inthis reaction three components including a carbonyl com-pound (generally an aldehyde), an amine and either alkaline
metal cyanide or hydrogen cyanide couple together and pro-
duce a-amino nitriles. The Strecker reaction is one of the most
straightforward and efficient methods for the synthesis ofa-amino nitriles as one of the very useful synthones for thepreparation of a-amino acids (Shafran et al., 1989) and hetero-
cyclic compounds such as imidazoles and other biologicallyimportant molecules (Matier et al., 1973; Duthaler, 1994).a-Amino acids have the great biological and economical signif-
icance because of their widespread use in chemistry and biol-ogy. For example, they are the key precursors for thesynthesis of proteins and have several applications as the chiral
building blocks in the pharmaceutical industry (Enders andShilvock, 2000; Dyker, 1997). Recently, synthesis of hepatitisC virus NS3 serine protease inhibitors (Arasappan et al.,2007) (±)-phthalascidin 622 (Razafindrabe et al., 2010) and
novel boron-containing retinoids (Das et al., 2009) has beenreported following this strategy.
Recently Drabina and Sedlak reported recent developments
and trends in the application of 2-amino-2-alkyl(aryl)propane-nitriles as precursors for the syntheses of heterocyclic systemssuch as imidazole derivatives, oxazoles, isothiazoles and
1,3,2-diazaphospholidines (Drabina and Sedlak, 2012). Their
C
H3C
NH2H3C
CN HN
NH3C
CH3
CH3
O
Ac2O/HClO4
60%
Scheme 2 Preparation of 2,4,4-trimethyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-imida-
zol-5-one from 2-amino-2-propanenitrile.
An efficient one-pot three-component synthesis of a-amino nitriles via Strecker reaction S203
chemical and/or biological properties and potentialapplications are discussed, along with those of the derivedheterocycles. Bifunctional 2-amino-2-alkyl(aryl)propanenitr-
iles contain in their molecules both a nucleophilic centre atamino group and an electrophilic centre at cyano group, whichis advantageous from the standpoint of their applications as
basic synthetic building blocks used for syntheses of a largenumber of organic compounds (Schrimsher et al., 1986;Estramareix and David, 1986).
Reactions of substituted a-aminonitriles with imidoesterslead to substituted 5-amino-4H-imidazoles, which representkey components in many bioactive compounds, both naturaland synthetic (Avendano et al., 1985; Gomez et al., 1986;
Soh et al., 2006). The oldest papers describing the synthesesof 5-amino-4H-imidazoles from a-aminonitriles were pub-lished in the 1980s (Avendano et al., 1985) (Scheme 1).
2,4,4-Trimethyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazol-5-one was pre-pared by the reaction of 2-amino-2-propanenitrile with aceticacid anhydride catalysed with perchloric acid. The first reac-
tion step is acylation at the amino group of the aminonitrilewhich is followed by ring closure reaction (Oniciu et al.,1992) (Scheme 2).
Generally, a-amino nitriles are prepared by the nucleophilicaddition of cyanide ion to the imines (in situ generated fromcondensation of aldehydes with amines) in the presence of Le-wis acid or Lewis base catalysts. Many cyanide sources such as
HCN (Enders and Shilvock, 2000), KCN (Kobayashi and Ishi-tani, 1999), Bu3SnCN (Vachal and Jacobsen, 2002), Et2AlCN(Nakamura et al., 2004), (Et2O)P(O)CN (Harusawa et al.,
1979) and TMSCN (Bhanu Prasad et al., 2004) have been usedfor Strecker reaction. Among the aforementioned reagents,TMSCN is the safer and more efficient cyanide anion source
(Groutas and Felker (1980).Various Lewis acids such as Yb(OTf)3 (Kobayashi et al.,
1997), Pr(OTf)3 (De and Gibbs, 2005), Cu(OTf)2 (Paraskar
and Sudalai, 2006), ZrCl4 (Raghu and Reddy, 2009), BiCl3(De and Gibbs, 2004), CeCl3 (Pasha et al., 2007), RuCl3 (De,2005), Sc(OTf)3 (Kobayashi et al., 1998), InI3 (Shen et al.,2008), RhI3 (Majhi et al., 2008), La(NO3)3Æ6H2O or GdCl3Æ6-H2O (Narasimhulu et al., 2007), iodine (Royer et al., 2005),and (bromodimethyl)sulphonium bromide (Das et al., 2006),homogeneously catalyse the Strecker-type reaction. On the
C
CNR1
R2 NH2
C R3
HN
C2H5OC
R1
R2
CN
NH
C
NH
R3
N
N
R3
R2
R1
H2N
+
ethanolrt
1-15 days4 - 86 %
R1, R2 = CH3 ; - (CH2)4 -R3 = 4-CH3C6H4; 4-NO2CH3C6H4; 2-Py
Scheme 1 Synthesis of 5-amino-4H-imidazoles from a-aminonitriles.
other hand, several heterogeneous catalysts, which are moreadvantageous in terms of catalyst/product separation and con-
tinuous production, have been proposed for the reaction. Theexamples include polymer-supported scandium triflate(Kobayashi et al., 1996), montmorillonite (Yadav et al.,
2004), MCM-41 anchored sulphonic acid (Dekamin andMokhtari, 2012), nano powder TiO2 P 25 (Baghbanian et al.,2011), sulphamic acid-functionalized magnetic Fe3O4 nanopar-
ticles (Kassaee et al., 2011), K2PdCl4 (Karmakar and Banerji,2010), heteropoly acid (Rafiee et al.,2008), Al-MCM-41(Iwanami et al., 2010), xanthan sulphuric acid (Shaabaniet al., 2009), and poly(4-vinyl pyridine)-SO2 complex (Olah
et al., 2007). In contrast, many of these reported methods in-volve the use of expensive reagents, hazardous solvents, longerreaction times and tedious workup procedure. Therefore, it is
desirable to develop an efficient and practical method for theStrecker reaction under eco-friendly conditions.
Recently, the use of bismuth compounds has attracted
much attention due to non-toxicity, low cost, commercialavailability, ease handling and resistant to air/moisture. Bis-muth(III) compounds are termed as ‘‘green’’ reagents in organ-ic synthesis (Leonard et al., 2002; Hua, 2008; Bothwell et al.,
2011). Bismuth has an electron configuration of[Xe]4f145d106s26p3, and due to weak shielding of the 4f elec-trons, bismuth compounds exhibit Lewis acidity. Bismuth(III)
nitrate has been used as a catalyst in many organic synthesis(Banik and Cardona, 2006; Mukhopadhyay and Datta, 2008;Alexander et al., 2005; Thirupathi and Kim, 2009; Wang
et al., 2012). During the course of our studies towards thedevelopment of green catalytic processes to synthesis b-aminocarbonyl compounds, we found bismuth nitrate (Bi(NO3)3) as
an inexpensive and commercially available catalyst. It can effi-ciently catalyse through one-pot condensation of aromaticaldehydes, amines and trimethylsilyl cyanide in short reactiontime (Scheme 3). After the reaction, bismuth nitrate could be
easily recovered by simple phase separation and could be re-used many times without loss of its catalytic activity. Applica-tion of such catalyst will lead to minimal pollution and waste
material. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge no reporthas been made so far about the synthesis of a-amino nitrilescatalysed by Bi(NO3)3.
R1 H
O
Bi(NO3)3
TMSCNR1 N
H
R2
CN
+ R2NH2 + Me3SiCNMeCN, RT
Aldehyde Amine
1 2 3 4a - 4l
Scheme 3 Strecker synthesis of a-aminonitriles.
S204 S. Sheik Mansoor et al.
2. Experimental
2.1. Apparatus and analysis
All reactions were performed at room temperature. High speedstirring was carried out with magnetic force. All chemicals
were purchased from Aldrich Chemical Co. and solvents wereused without further purification. Analytical thin-layer chro-matography was performed with E. Merck silica gel 60F glass
plates. Visualization of the developed chromatogram was per-formed by UV light (254 nm). Column chromatography wasperformed on silica gel 90, 200–300 mesh. Melting points weredetermined with Shimadzu DS-50 thermal analyser. 1H NMR
(500 MHz) and 13C NMR (125 MHz) spectra were obtainedusing Bruker DRX-500 Avance at ambient temperature, usingTMS as internal standard. FT-IR spectra were obtained as
KBr discs on Shimadzu spectrometer. Mass spectra were deter-mined on a Varian – Saturn 2000 GC/MS instrument. Elemen-tal analyses were measured by means of Perkin Elmer 2400
CHN elemental analyser flowchart.
3. Chemistry
3.1. General procedure for the synthesis of compounds 4a–l
To a mixture of an aldehyde 1 (1 mmol), an amine 2 (1 mmol)and trimethylsilyl cyanide 3 (1.2 mmol) in acetonitrile (10 mL),Bi(NO3)3 (10 mol %) was added and the reaction mixture wasstirred at room temperature. The treatment of benzaldehyde
and aniline with TMSCN in the presence of catalytic amountof Bi(NO3)3 in acetonitrile afforded 2-(N-anilino)-2-phenylace-tonitrile in 94% yield. The catalyst was recovered and reused.
When the reaction was completed as indicated by TLC, thesolvent was removed in vacuo, quenched with water (15 mL)and the crude product extracted with ethyl acetate
(3 · 15 mL). The organic layer was washed with water(20 mL) and brine solution (20 mL) respectively, then driedunder anhydrous MgSO4, and concentrated in vacuo. The res-idue was subjected to column chromatography over silica gel
(ethyl acetate–hexane, 1:9) as eluent to afford pure a-amino ni-trile. The filtrate was concentrated, diluted with ethyl acetate,washed with water and the aqueous layer containing the cata-
lyst was evaporated under reduced pressure to give a white so-lid (catalyst), which was reused. The crude product waspurified via recrystallization from ethanol or ethanol/acetone
(v/v = 3:2) to give the corresponding compounds 4a–l
(Scheme 1). The products were identified by IR, 1H NMR,13C NMR, MS and elemental analyses.
4. Results and discussion
In light of our success in the development of simple and envi-
ronmentally friendly experimental procedures using readilyavailable reagents and catalysts for the synthesis of biologi-cally active molecules, such as 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones/-thiones/imines (Mansoor et al., 2011), b-amino ketone
compounds (Mansoor et al., 2015), amidoalkyl naphthols(Mansoor et al., 2016a), 2-amino-4,6-diphenylpyridine-3-car-bonitrile derivatives (Mansoor et al., 2016b) and 1,4-dihydro-
pyridine derivatives (Mansoor et al., 2016c) we became
interested in the possibility of developing a one-pot synthesisof a-amino nitriles via the Strecker reaction of aromatic alde-hyde, amine and trimethylsilyl cyanide (TMSCN) in the pres-
ence of a reusable bismuth nitrate catalyst at roomtemperature (Scheme 3). In this paper, we wish to highlightour finding about the Bi(NO3)3 catalysed three-component
Strecker reaction using acetonitrile as a solvent at ambienttemperature.
4.1. Effect of catalyst
In comparison with other catalysts such as Pr(OTf)3,Cu(OTf)2, ZrCl4, BiCl3, RuCl3, Sc(OTf)3 and La(NO3)Æ6H2O
employed for the synthesis of a-amino nitriles, Bi(NO3)3 showsmore catalytic activity than the others in terms of the amountof catalyst required, reaction time and yield of the products(Table 1).
4.2. Effect of solvent
The reaction was performed in various solvents using Bi(NO3)3as the catalyst to identify the best condition. A range of sol-vents such as acetonitrile, THF, ethanol, toluene, methanol,dichloromethane, DMSO, THF/H2O (1:1) and ethanol/H2O
(1:1) were examined and acetonitrile emerged as the solventof choice in terms of reaction kinetics and product yields(Table 2).
4.3. Reusability of the catalyst
The reusability of the catalyst is one of the most importantbenefits and makes it useful for commercial applications. Thus
the recovery and reusability of Bi(NO3)3 was investigated. Inthese experiments, the reaction mixture was isolated with eth-anol. The catalyst filtered was washed with ethanol
(3 · 10 mL). The catalyst was easily reused by filtration afterwashing and drying at 60 �C. The recycled catalyst has beenexamined in the next run. The Bi(NO3)3 catalyst could be re-
used four times without any loss of its activity for the com-pound 4a (Table 1, entry 9).
4.4. Synthesis of various amino nitriles (4a–l)
The scope and generality of this reaction are illustrated withrespect to various amines and aldehydes including aromatica,b-unsaturated and heterocyclic aldehydes (Table 3). These
three-component coupling reactions proceed efficiently atambient temperature with high selectivity. No undesired sideproduct such as cyanohydrins trimethylsilyl ether, an adduct
between the aldehyde and TMSCN, could be detected be-cause of the rapid formation of the imine intermediate.The reactions are clean and highly selective affording exclu-
sively amino nitriles in high yields. This method is equallyeffective with aldehydes bearing electron-donating and elec-tron-withdrawing substituents in the aromatic ring. Further-more, acid sensitive aldehydes such as furfuraldehyde and
cinnamaldehyde worked well without any decomposition orpolymerization under these conditions. This method doesnot require any other additives to promote the reaction.
The reaction conditions were mild enough to perform these
Table 1 Three component Strecker reaction using benzaldehyde (1 mmol), aniline (1 mmol) and TMSCN (1.2 mmol): comparison of
effect of catalyst.a
Entry Catalyst Amount of catalyst (mol %) Time (min) Yieldb References
1 Pr(OTf)3 10 600 89 De and Gibbs (2005)
2 Cu(OTf)2 2 360 89 Paraskar and Sudalai (2006)
3 ZrCl4 10 60 90 Raghu and Reddy (2009)
4 BiCl3 10 600 84 De and Gibbs (2004)
5 RuCl3 20 1200 74 De (2005)
6 Sc(OTf)3 10 1200 88 Kobayashi et al. (1998)
7 La(NO3)Æ6H2O 10 60 90 Narasimhulu et al. (2007)
8 Bi(NO3)3 10 60 94 This work
9 Bi(NO3)3 10 60 94, 92, 93, 90c ’’
a All reactions were carried out in acetonitrile at room temperature.b Isolated yields.c Catalyst was reused four times.
Table 2 Three component Strecker reaction using benzalde-
hyde (1 mmol), aniline (1 mmol) and TMSCN (1.2 mmol) in the
presence of Bi(NO3)3 (10 mol %) in various solvents: effect of
solvent.
Entry Solvent Time (min) Yield %
1 CH3CN 60 94
2 THF 300 46
3 Ethanol 120 80
4 Toluene 240 60
5 Methanol 180 72
5 CH2Cl2 300 64
6 DMSO 300 74
7 THF/H2O (1:1) 240 62
8 Ethanol/H2O (1:1) 240 70
An efficient one-pot three-component synthesis of a-amino nitriles via Strecker reaction S205
reactions in the presence of either acid or base sensitivesubstrates.
4.5. Spectral data for the synthesized compounds (4a–l)
4.5.1. 2-(N-Anilino)-2-phenyl acetonitrile (4a)
White crystalline solid, m.p. 82–84 �C. IR (KBr): 3372, 3024,2955, 2230, 1604, 1512, 1482, 1311, 1144, 985, 771 cm�1; 1HNMR (500 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 3.84 (d, 1H, J= 8.0 Hz),
5.25 (d, 1H, J= 8.4 Hz), 6.60 (d, 2H, J= 8.0 Hz), 6.72 (t,1H, J= 8.0 Hz), 7.04–7.11 (m, 2H), 7.27–7.31 (m, 3H),7.41–7.43 (m, 2H), ppm; 13C NMR (125 MHz, DMSO-d6):
d = 50.3, 114.3, 118.2, 120.4, 127.3, 129.4, 129.6, 133.4,144.6 ppm; MS (ESI): m/z 209 (M+H)+; Anal. Calcd. forC14H12N2: C, 80.77; H, 5.77; N, 13.46; Found: C, 80.70; H,5.71; N, 13.40.
4.5.2. 2-(N-Anilino)-2-(4-methyl phenyl)acetonitrile (4b)
Yellow solid, m.p. 74–76 �C. IR (KBr): 3355, 2928, 2852, 2230,
1670, 1559, 1435, 1277, 1133, 1019, 930, 775 cm�1; 1H NMR(500 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 2.21 (s, 3H) 3.83 (bs, 1H), 5.20(s, 1H), 6.59 (d, 2H, J= 8.0 Hz), 6.71 (t, 1H, J= 7.2 Hz),7.07–7.11 (m, 4H), 7.29 (d, 2H, J = 7.6 Hz), ppm; 13C NMR
(125 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 21.4, 50.3, 114.2, 118.3, 120.3,127.9, 129.3, 129.6, 130.3, 133.9, 144.7 ppm; MS (ESI): m/z223 (M+H)+; Anal. Calcd. for C15H14N2: C, 81.08; H, 6.31;
N, 12.61; Found: C, 81.15; H, 6.39; N, 12.70.
4.5.3. 2-(N-Anilino)-2-(4-chloro phenyl)acetonitrile (4c)
White solid, m.p. 108–110 �C. IR (KBr): 3380, 2888, 2233,1602, 1505, 1458, 1293, 1132, 1011, 780 cm�1; 1H NMR(500 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 3.84 (bs, 1H), 5.24 (d, 1H,
J= 6.0 Hz), 6.56 (d, 2H, J = 7.8 Hz), 6.73 (t, 1H, J =7.2 Hz), 7.09 (t, 2H, J = 8.0 Hz), 7.25 (d, 2H, J= 8.8 Hz),7.37 (d, 2H, J = 8.4 Hz), ppm; 13C NMR (125 MHz,
DMSO-d6): d = 49.7, 114.2, 117.7, 120.8, 129.4, 129.6, 132.3,135.3, 144.4 ppm; MS (ESI): m/z 244 (M+H)+; Anal. Calcd.for C14H11N2Cl: C, 69.29; H, 4.54; N, 11.55; Found: C,
69.36; H, 4.48; N, 11.44.
4.5.4. 2-(N-Anilino)-2-(4-cyano phenyl)acetonitrile (4d)
Pale yellow solid, m.p. 116–118 �C. IR (KBr): 3383, 2880,
2238, 1592, 1499, 1448, 1277, 1122, 1001, 787 cm�1; 1HNMR (500 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 4.19 (bs, 1H), 5.58 (s,1H), 6.80 (d, 2H, J = 7.8 Hz), 6.99 (t, 1H, J = 7.4 Hz), 7.33
(t, 2H, J = 7.6 Hz), 7.81 (s, 4H), ppm; 13C NMR (125 MHz,DMSO-d6): d = 49.6, 114.4, 118.3, 120.6, 127.5, 129.8, 133.3,144.5 ppm; MS (ESI): m/z 234 (M+H)+; Anal. Calcd. forC15H11N3: C, 77.25; H, 4.72; N, 18.03; Found: C, 77.36; H,
4.66; N, 18.09.
4.5.5. 2-(N-Anilino)-2-(2-chloro phenyl)acetonitrile (4e)
White solid, m.p. 66–68 �C. IR (KBr): 3405, 2908, 2240, 1600,1509, 1455, 1290, 1142, 1009, 788 cm�1; 1H NMR (500 MHz,DMSO-d6): d = 3.83 (d, 1H, J = 7.6 Hz), 5.54 (d, 1H,J= 8.0 Hz), 6.60 (d, 2H, J= 8.0 Hz), 6.72 (t, 1H,
J= 7.6 Hz), 7.09 (t, 2H, J = 8.0 Hz), 7.20–7.22 (m, 2H),7.29–7.31 (m, 1H), 7.55–7.58 (m, 1H), ppm; 13C NMR(125 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 50.1, 55.4, 114.2, 118.2, 119.4,
120.2, 129.5, 130.4, 135.4, 144.7 ppm; MS (ESI): m/z 244(M+H)+; Anal. Calcd. for C14H11N2Cl: C, 69.29; H, 4.54;N, 11.55; Found: C, 69.20; H, 4.44; N, 11.44.
4.5.6. 2-(N-Anilino)-2-(4-methoxy phenyl)acetonitrile (4f)
White solid, m.p. 94–96 �C. IR (KBr): 3382, 3030, 2935, 2244,1600, 1500, 1462, 1300, 1112, 999, 761 cm�1; 1H NMR
(500 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 3.65 (s, 3H), 3.78 (bs, 1H), 5.15(d, 1H, J= 6.4 Hz), 6.59 (d, 2H, J= 8.0 Hz), 6.69–6.79 (m,3H), 7.09 (d, 2H, J = 8.0 Hz), 7.32 (d, 2H, J= 8.0 Hz),
ppm; 13C NMR (125 MHz, DMSO- d6): d = 49.4, 55.3,114.0, 114.4, 118.4, 119.9, 125.8, 128.5, 129.4, 144.7,
Table 3 Three component Strecker reaction using aldehyde (1 mmol), amine (1 mmol) and TMSCN (1.2 mmol) in the presence of
Bi(NO3)3 (10 mol %) in acetonitrile.a
Entry Aldehyde Amine Product Time (min) Yieldb (%)
1 CHO NH2
NH
CN
4a
4a 60 94
2CHO
H3C
NH2
NH
CN
H3C
4b
4b 60 90
3CHO
Cl
NH2
NH
CN
Cl
4c4c 75 87
4CHO
NC
NH2
NH
CN
NC
4d4d 120 78
5
CHO
ClNH2
NH
CNCl
4e4e 90 80
6CHO
H3CO
NH2
NH
CN
H3CO
4f4f 75 85
7CHO
OCH3
NH2NH
CN
OCH3
4g 4g 90 87
8CHO
NH2
ClNH
CNCl
4h4h 60 86
9CHO
NH2
H3CONH
CNOCH3
4i 4i 75 86
10CHO
NH2
NH
CN
4j4j 75 83
S206 S. Sheik Mansoor et al.
Table 3 (continued)
Entry Aldehyde Amine Product Time (min) Yieldb (%)
11
O CHO
NH2 HN
CN
O
4k
4k 60 85
12
O CHOH3C
NH2HN
CN
OH3C
4l
4l 60 83
a All reactions were carried out in acetonitrile at room temperature.b Isolated yields.
An efficient one-pot three-component synthesis of a-amino nitriles via Strecker reaction S207
160.2 ppm; MS (ESI): m/z 239 (M+H)+; Anal. Calcd. forC15H14N2O: C, 75.63; H, 5.88; N, 11.77; Found: C, 75.70;
H, 5.75; N, 11.69.
4.5.7. 2-(N-Anilino)-2-(3-methoxy phenyl)acetonitrile (4g)
White solid, m.p. 58–60 �C. IR (KBr): 3362, 3020, 2942, 2256,
1611, 1512, 1472, 1302, 1115, 1010, 771 cm�1; 1H NMR(500 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 3.65 (s, 3H), 3.86 (bs, 1H), 5.21(s, 1H), 6.59 (d, 2H, J = 8.0 Hz), 6.72 (t, 1H, J = 7.6 Hz),
6.76 (dd, 1H, J = 2.0, 8.2 Hz), 6.93 (s, 1H), 6.98 (d, 1H,J = 7.6 Hz), 7.09 (t, 2H, J = 8.0 Hz), 7.19 (t, 1H,J = 8.0 Hz), ppm; 13C NMR (125 MHz, DMSO- d6):
d = 49.6, 55.8, 114.2, 117.2, 120.6, 127.6, 129.9, 144.8,160.3 ppm; MS (ESI): m/z 239 (M+H)+; Anal. Calcd. forC15H14N2O: C, 75.63; H, 5.88; N, 11.77; Found: C, 75.56;H, 5.80; N, 11.68.
4.5.8. 2-(N-4-Chloroanilino)-2-phenyl acetonitrile (4h)
White solid, m.p. 108–110 �C. IR (KBr): 3377, 2898, 2228,
1611, 1509, 1450, 1299, 1122, 1018, 781 cm�1; 1H NMR(500 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 3.80 (bs, 1H), 5.20 (d, 1H,J = 6.0 Hz), 6.53 (d, 2H, J = 7.77 Hz), 6.75 (t, 1H, J=7.2 Hz), 7.04 (t, 2H, J = 8.0 Hz), 7.29 (d, 2H, J= 8.77 Hz),
7.41 (d, 2H, J = 8.4 Hz), ppm; 13C NMR (125 MHz,DMSO-d6): d = 50.0, 115.3, 117.9, 124.8, 127.0, 129.1, 129.4,130.0, 133.4, 143.2 ppm; MS (ESI): m/z 244 (M+H)+; Anal.
Calcd. for C14H11N2Cl: C, 69.29; H, 4.54; N, 11.55; Found:C, 69.27; H, 4.50; N, 11.57.
4.5.9. 2-(N-4-Methoxyanilino)-2-phenyl acetonitrile (4i)
White solid, m.p. 94–96 �C. IR (KBr): 3366, 3039, 2925, 2249,1598, 1508, 1442, 1308, 1102, 990, 778 cm�1; 1H NMR(500 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 3.60 (s, 3H), 3.70 (bs, 1H), 5.10
(d, 1H, J= 6.4 Hz), 6.53 (d, 2H, J = 8.0 Hz), 6.60–6.75 (m,3H), 7.09 (d, 2H, J = 8.0 Hz), 7.44 (d, 2H, J = 8.0 Hz), ppm;13C NMR (125 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 48.3, 114.6, 117.6,
120.5, 121.2, 127.0, 128.9, 129.7, 132.8, 135.9, 144.8 ppm; MS(ESI): m/z 239 (M+H)+; Anal. Calcd. for C15H14N2O: C,75.63; H, 5.88; N, 11.77; Found: C, 75.62; H, 5.90; N, 11.76.
4.5.10. 2-(N-Anilino)-2-cinnamyl acetonitrile (4j)
Pale yellow solid, m.p. 110–112 �C. IR (KBr): 3351, 2930,2224, 1605, 1500, 1460, 1275, 1030, 975, 890, 772 cm�1; 1H
NMR (CDCl3, 300 MHz): d = 3.92 (d, 1H, J= 9.6 Hz),5.08–5.11 (m, 1H), 6.31 (dd, 1H, J = 4.8, 15.8 Hz), 6.80 (d,
1H, J = 8.0 Hz), 6.93 (t, 1H, J= 8.0 Hz), 7.08 (d, 1H,J= 16.0 Hz), 7.30–7.47 (m, 8H), ppm; 13C NMR (125 MHz,DMSO-d6): d = 47.7, 114.4, 117.7, 120.4, 121.0, 126.9, 128.6,
128.9, 129.6, 134.9, 135.1, 144.5 ppm; MS (ESI): m/z 235(M+H)+; Anal. Calcd. for C16H14N2: C, 82.05; H, 5.98; N,11.96; Found: C, 82.12; H, 5.95; N, 12.00.
4.5.11. 2-(N-Anilino)-2-furfuryl acetonitrile (4k)
Dark brown solid, m.p. 68–70 �C. IR (KBr): 3355, 2980, 2244,1641, 1562, 1500, 1440, 1290, 1250, 1145, 1011, 885, 751 cm�1;1H NMR (500 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 4.21 (bs, 1H), 5.55 (d,1H, J = 6.7 Hz), 6.48 (t, 1H, J= 2.6 Hz), 6.64 (d, 1H,J= 3.4 Hz), 6.84 (d, 2H, J = 7.8 Hz), 6.97 (t, 1H, J =7.4 Hz), 7.33 (t, 2H, J = 7.8 Hz), 7.54 (d, 1H, J= 1.0 Hz),
ppm; 13C NMR (125 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 48.2, 111.1,111.9, 116.4, 122.4, 129.9, 134.4, 137.2, 146.1 ppm; MS(ESI): m/z 199 (M+H)+; Anal. Calcd. for C12H10N2O: C,
72.73; H, 5.05; N, 14.14; Found: C, 72.70; H, 5.02; N, 14.11.
4.5.12. 2-(N-Anilino)-2-(5-methyl furfuryl)acetonitrile (4l)
Brown solid, m.p. 108–110 �C. IR (KBr): 3368, 2992, 2232,
1612, 1544, 1495, 1418, 1292, 1242, 1140, 1018, 890,741 cm�1; 1H NMR (500 MHz, DMSO-d6): d = 2.14 (s, 3H)3.95 (d, 1H, J = 8.0 Hz), 5.23 (d, 1H, J= 8.4 Hz), 5.81 (d,
1H, J = 2.0 Hz), 6.27 (d, 1H, J= 2.8 Hz), 6.58 (d, 2H,J= 8.0 Hz), 6.73 (t, 1H, J = 7.2 Hz), 7.09 (t, 2H,J= 8.8 Hz), ppm; 13C NMR (125 MHz, DMSO-d6):
d = 13.5, 44.3, 106.8, 110.4, 114.4, 116.7, 120.4, 129.5, 144.0,144.2, 154.0 ppm; MS (ESI): m/z 213 (M+H)+; Anal. Calcd.for C13H12N2O: C, 73.58; H, 5.66; N, 13.20; Found: C,
73.55; H, 5.62; N, 13.24.
4.6. Mechanism
A possible mechanism for this one-pot multi-component
reaction has been presented here: On one hand, it is wellestablished that the electrophilic character of aldehydes ismuch higher than the related imines. The absence of cyanohy-
drin trimethylsilyl ether derivatives could indicate that trimeth-ylsilyl cyanide is not nucleophilic enough to react withaldehydes. Therefore, the direct reaction with imines should
Me
R1 H
O
CN
Me3SiCN + OH-
HN+
R2
R1 H
Bi(NO3)3
Me
Me
Si
OH
Me
Me
SiMe
Me
CN
Me
O
NH2
R2
R1
H
HN+
R2
R1 H
Me3SiOH
Si
CN
OH
Me
R1 NH
R2
CN
OH-+ R2NH2 + (a)
-
(b
-
+(c)
+
-
5
Scheme 4 Plausible mechanism for the formation of a–amino
nitriles via Strecker reaction.
S208 S. Sheik Mansoor et al.
be discarded. On the other hand, the initial step in the conden-sation of an aldehyde and an amine is the formation of the
iminium hydroxide intermediate (Eq. (a) in Scheme 4), whichis in equilibrium with the starting materials and normallyevolves to form water and the corresponding imine. At this
stage, we speculate that the hydroxyl group reacts with thehighly oxophilic silicon atom to form a penta coordinate deriv-ative (Chuit et al., 1993), which has a more nucleophilic char-
acter than the starting material (Eq. (b) in Scheme 4). The laststep could be either the direct condensation between the highlynucleophilic silicate derivative with the iminium intermediate(Eq. (c) in Scheme 4) (Dilman et al., 2005), or the liberation
of the cyanide anion from the silicate and its condensationwith the aforementioned iminium derivative (Martinez et al.,2005), in both cases forming the final a-amino nitrile. Alterna-
tively, the reaction pathway through the intermediate 5 cannotbe ruled out. This new possibility implies the condensation ofthe amine with the aldehyde, the initial tetrahedral intermedi-
ate being trapped by reaction with the highly electrophilic tri-methylsilyl cyanide to give the corresponding Zwitterionicintermediate 5. Then, the intramolecular hydrogen and cya-nide transfer gave the a-aminonitrile. Anyway, the role of
the solvent seems to be to stabilize some penta coordinate sil-icon intermediate, as well as to avoid the formation of the poorelectrophilic imine derivative.
5. Conclusions
In conclusion, we have developed a facile, convenient method
for the one-pot Strecker synthesis of a-amino nitriles from the
coupling of various aldehydes with aniline and trimethylsilylcyanide using bismuth nitrate as an efficient catalyst. The cat-alyst has many advantages like inexpensive, non-toxic catalyst,
high catalytic efficiency, short reaction times, straightforwardwork-up and environmentally benign procedure. Furthermore,the Bi(NO3)3/acetonitrile system is more effective than the ear-
lier methods. This procedure will therefore be of general useand interest to the synthetic chemistry study.
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge C. Abdul Hakeem College Man-
agement, Dr. W. Abdul Hameed, Principal, Dr. M. S. Dastag-eer, Head of the Research Department of Chemistry for thefacilities and support from the Department of Science and
Technology – FIST (Government of India) sponsored Depart-ment. We thank Dr. A. Abdul Rahuman, Unit of Nanotech-nology and Bioactive Natural Products, for useful discussion
and encouragement.
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