One‐Pot Synthesis of α‐Aminonitriles in Water Using Iron (III) Tosylate Hexahydrate (Fe(OTs)3 ⋅ 6H2O) as a Green Catalyst

An efficient and environmentally friendly synthetic protocol has been presented to synthesize α‐aminonitriles from aldehydes, amines and trimethylsilyl cyanide using 10 mol% iron(III) tosylate hexahydrate (Fe(OTs)3 ⋅ 6H2O) as a green catalyst in aqueous media through one‐pot procedure. Iron(III) tosylate hexahydrate is a promising catalyst, introduced first time for the synthesis of α‐aminonitriles in aqueous media as it is commercially available, inexpensive, non‐toxic, operational simplicity and has a short reaction time with excellent yields is awaited to contribute to the development of novel green protocol for the synthesize α‐aminonitriles. We have developed a green protocol, which is rapid operationally simple, environmentally friendly and efficient process for the preparation of α‐aminonitriles through one‐pot procedure from aldehydes, amines and trimethylsilyl cyanide as building blocks in the aqueous medium using 10 mol% of Fe(OTs)3 ⋅ 6H2O as a green catalyst.