Substituted Pyridines from Acetonitrile

14 February 2006

We normally think of acetonitrile as a relatively inert solvent and it has often been used in electro chemistry. It has now been found that electrolysis of acetonitriles leads to generation of CH2CN radicals and carbon-carbon bond formation and resultant cyclisation gives substituted pyridines in high yield. Other byproducts are also formed (Otero M D et al, Tetrahedron Lett, 2005, 46, 8681-8683).