In the presence of a catalytic amount of trityl perchlorate, secondary and tertiary allyl ethers smoothly react with allylsilanes and silyl cyanide to give the corresponding 1,5-dienes and β,γ-unsaturated nitriles, respectively, in good yields.
Brønsted Acid Catalyzed Dehydroxylative Cyanation of Benzylic Alcohols with Trimethylsilyl Cyanide Using 1,1,1,3,3,3‐Hexafluoro‐2‐propanol as a Solvent
A Brønsted acid-catalyzed, concise and direct cyanation of benzylic alcohols using TMSCN as a cyanide source and HFIP as a solvent has been developed. Through this simple and easy-to-handle method, we have achieved the preparation of intermediates for pharmaceuticals, late-stage material transformations, and a short-step enantioselective synthesis of (S)-verimol F.