Deoxycyanation of Alkyl Alcohols

Cyano groups represent an important class of functional motifs in medicinal chemistry given their synthetic versatility and capacity to engage in essential interactions with biological targets. However, the synthesis of sterically hindered alkyl nitriles using non-toxic reagents remains challenging. Traditional methods often rely on toxic cyanide sources and suffer from limited substrate scope. Herein, we report a photoredox catalyzed, metal-free deoxycyanation of alkyl alcohols that allows rapid access to a wide array of 1º, 2º, and 3º cyanides using non-toxic cyanide reagents.