Practical and scalable preparation of 2-methyleneglutaronitrile via an efficient and highly selective head-to-tail dimerization of acrylonitrile catalysed by low-loading of tricyclohexylphosphine

Abstract

By carefully evaluating the effect of solvent, ligand, temperature, and time, the commercially available tricyclohexylphosphine was found to be a particularly effective catalyst for head-to-tail dimerization of acrylonitrile, providing an efficient, scalable, and highly selective method for preparation of the useful 2-methyleneglutaronitrile with a low catalyst loading.