Boric acid: an efficient,cost-effective and recyclable solid acid catalyst for the three-component synthesis of a-amino nitriles

One-pot multi-component condensation reactions are important and attractive due to the formation of multibonds in one pot, high atom economy, mild and simplified conditions and environmentally benign friendliness. Strecker reaction as the first multi-component reaction (MCR), which was discovered in 1850, represented one of the most important reactions, especially from the life science viewpoint (Strecker, 1850). In this reaction three components including a carbonyl compound (generally an aldehyde), an amine and either alkaline metal cyanide or hydrogen cyanide couple together and produce α-amino nitriles. The Strecker reaction is one of the most straightforward and efficient methods for the synthesis of α-amino nitriles as one of the very useful synthones for the preparation of α-amino acids (Shafran et al., 1989) and heterocyclic compounds such as imidazoles and other biologically important molecules (Matier et al., 1973, Duthaler, 1994). α-Amino acids have the great biological and economical significance because of their widespread use in chemistry and biology. For example, they are the key precursors for the synthesis of proteins and have several applications as the chiral building blocks in the pharmaceutical industry (Enders and Shilvock, 2000, Dyker, 1997) Alpha Amino nitriles are synthesized by the three-component coupling reaction of aldehydes, amines and potassium cyanide using boric acid as a heterogeneous solid acid catalyst, under solvent-free conditions in excellent yields.

کلیدواژه ها:

Alpha Amino nitriles ، aldehydes ، boric acid ، potassium cyanide