Oxoammonium salt-mediated oxidative nitriles synthesis from aldehydes with ammonium acetate.

An efficient and scalable route for the synthesis of nitriles was developed by oxoammonium salt (4-acetamido-2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxoammonium tetrafluoroborate) mediated oxidative conversion of aldehydes with NH 4 OAc. A variety of aliphatic aldehydes as well as benzaldehydes were converted into the corresponding nitriles in high yields. The nitroxyl radical which is the reduced species of the used oxoammonium salt was recovered by simple acid-base extraction for the recycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]