2-Furonitrile is a colorless derivative of
furan
Furan is a heterocyclic organic compound, consisting of a five-membered aromatic ring with four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom. Chemical compounds containing such rings are also referred to as furans.
Furan is a colorless, flammable, highly ...
possessing a
nitrile
In organic chemistry, a nitrile is any organic compound that has a functional group. The prefix ''cyano-'' is used interchangeably with the term ''nitrile'' in industrial literature. Nitriles are found in many useful compounds, including met ...
group.
Synthesis
Industrial synthesis is based on the vapor phase
ammoxidation
In organic chemistry, ammoxidation is a process for the production of nitriles () using ammonia () and oxygen (). It is sometimes called the SOHIO process, acknowledging that ammoxidation was developed at Standard Oil of Ohio. The usual substrate ...
of
furfural with
ammonia
Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous was ...
over bismuth molybdate catalyst at 440-480 °C.
Numerous laboratory methods also exist; for the instance oxidative dehydration of furfural with
ammonia
Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous was ...
salts using
hypervalent iodine
Iodane generally refers to any organic derivative of iodine. Without modifier, ''iodane'' is the systematic name for the parent hydride of iodine, HI. Thus, any organoiodine compound with general formula RI (e.g., iodomethane , or iodobenzene ) ...
reagents or
n-bromosuccinimide
''N''-Bromosuccinimide or NBS is a chemical reagent used in radical substitution, electrophilic addition, and electrophilic substitution reactions in organic chemistry. NBS can be a convenient source of Br•, the bromine radical.
Preparatio ...
. From furfural
aldoxime
In organic chemistry, an oxime is a organic compound belonging to the imines, with the general formula , where R is an organic side-chain and R’ may be hydrogen, forming an aldoxime, or another organic group, forming a ketoxime. O-substitute ...
(with thionyl chloride-benzotriazole, triphenylphosphine-iodine reagents, or heating in
DMSO
Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is an organosulfur compound with the formula ( CH3)2. This colorless liquid is the sulfoxide most widely used commercially. It is an important polar aprotic solvent that dissolves both polar and nonpolar compounds an ...
) and furoic acid amide (flash vacuum pyrolysis).
Applications
2-Furonitrile currently has no major applications but it is used as an intermediate in pharmaceutical and fine chemical synthesis. It has been suggested as a potential sweetening agent, as it has about thirty times the sweetening power of
sucrose
Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar. It has the molecular formula .
For human consumption, sucrose is extracted and refined ...
.
[Thomas J. Jennings, "Process for preparing furonitrile", US Patent 3,260,731 (1966)]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Furonitrile, 2-
2-Furyl compounds
Nitriles