(1,3-Dithiolan-2-YL)Acetonitrile: A Versatile Three-Carbon Building Block¹

Abstract

Recently, in connection with other work, we required cyano-acetaldehyde as a usefully functionalized three-carbon building block. Although first reported in 1889³ as an isolable compound, cyanoacetaldehyde has appeared in the literature only as various derivatives since that time.⁴ Indeed, in these laboratories, all attempts to prepare cyanoacetaldehyde have failed because of its great instability.