Nickel-Catalyzed Deoxycyanation of Activated Phenols via Cyanurate Intermediates with Zn(CN)2: A Route to Aryl Nitriles

An efficient, high yielding and environmentally benign strategy to the synthesis of new 2-amino-3-cyano-4-H-chromene derivatives, via one-pot three-component reaction involving malononitrile, various α- or β-naphthol and appropriate aromatic aldehydes including 2-chloroquinoline-3-carbaldehydes in the presence of morpholine in water, was achieved. During the development of the synthesis five new chromene derivatives were fruitfully synthesized. It was found that employing this approach, aromatic aldehydes bearing electron-withdrawing groups give higher yields of the corresponding products in shorter reaction times. This observation was in agreement with topological analysis of calculated electron density functions using density functional theory and quantum theory of atoms in molecules approaches.