4-Bromo-2-fluorobenzyl cyanide

773837-37-9

76283-09-5

114897-91-5

The reaction was carried out with 4-bromo-2-fluorobenzyl bromide (26.8 g, 100 mmol) and sodium cyanide (5.4 g, 110 mmol) in a solvent mixture of ethanol (40 ml) and water (10 ml) with stirring at 100 °C for 8.5 hours. After completion of the reaction, the mixture was cooled to room temperature and subsequently concentrated under reduced pressure. The reaction mixture was extracted with ethyl acetate and the organic layer was washed with saturated sodium chloride solution and dried with anhydrous sodium sulfate. After drying, the desiccant was removed by filtration and the filtrate was concentrated under reduced pressure to afford the target product 4-bromo-2-fluoro-benzyl cyanide (22.6 g, quantitative yield) as a black oil. The structure of the product was confirmed by 1H-NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3): δ 3.73 (2H, s), 7.27-7.38 (3H, m).