Cross metathesis of bio-sourced fatty nitriles with acrylonitrile

We report the cross metathesis of two olefinic partners containing different types of nitrile functionality. Thus, cross metathesis of fatty nitriles with acrylonitrile have been achieved with olefin metathesis ruthenium catalysts. 10-Undecenenitrile provides 2-dodecenedinitrile with a high turnover number of 13,280 in the green solvent, diethyl carbonate. Cross metathesis with the internal carbon–carbon double bond of oleonitrile gave the expected products, and the cleavage of the internal double bond proved to be more difficult probably owing to faster catalyst decomposition. Graphical abstract