Sciencemadness Discussion Board

m-Tolunitrile

Antigua - 13-10-2020 at 04:55

Hi!
Say one has a lot of m-Tolunitrile (3-methylbenzonitrile, CAS: 620-22-4) and has no clue what to do with it! Any ideas to change it into something useful or sellable (legal!).
Thanks for your suggestions.

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njl - 13-10-2020 at 05:24

I guess you could make DEET? If you for some reason felt so inclined.

Antigua - 13-10-2020 at 05:46

Quote: Originally posted by njl  
I guess you could make DEET? If you for some reason felt so inclined.

That would be HCl hydrolysis of the nitrile and ethylation of the N-position?
A good idea indeed.

njl - 13-10-2020 at 06:05

I suppose so, what I had in mind was oxidation to the acid and then amide formation with diethylamine. Either way, why do you have this (just out of curiosity)?

Antigua - 13-10-2020 at 06:20

I don't... one supplier of mine has 300L of it that he bought for a client, but the client never showed up! So now he has 300L of this compound and wants to do something to at least make up for the loss. That's why he asked me whether one could do anything with it. Still gathering ideas, but DEET seems to be a good one.