3,4-Dihydroxybenzonitrile is mainly used to synthesize drugs containing thiazole, 2-oxazoline, imidazole, triazole and benzopyrimidine structures, such as quinazoline drugs for anticancer. In recent years, in the field of new materials, 3,4-dihydroxybenzonitrile has also been used in the synthesis of photosensitive materials.
3,4-Dihydroxybenzonitrile can be prepared from 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzonitrile. It can also be synthesized by reacting 3,4-dimethoxybenzonitrile, lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) and 1,3-dimethyl-2-imidazolidinone (DMEU).
3-Methoxy-4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (vanillin) was used as the raw material, and 3-methoxy-4-hydroxybenzonitrile was obtained by reaction with hydroxylamine hydrochloride, and then 3,4-Dihydroxybenzonitrile was synthesized by demethylation reaction with alkali metal halide. The product content was 99.8%, and the total yield based on vanillin was 75.2%.
