Methyl 4-cyanobenzoate, which is 4-cyanobenzoic acid or its methyl ester, is an intermediate used in various applications, such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, precursors of liquid crystals, and/or functional polymer monomers.
m-Cyanobenzamide (73.0 g, 0.5 mol), which has a purity of 99% or more and methanol (460.3 g) were placed in a 2 l-separable flask. The mixture was allowed to react at 64° C. for 12 hours while a 20% hydrochloric acid/methanol solution (162.4 g) prepared in advance was added to it with stirring. Gas chromatographic analysis revealed that the reaction mixture contained 74.9 g of Methyl 4-cyanobenzoate (yield 93%).
