Ionic-Liquid Controlled Nitration of Double Bond: Highly Selective Synthesis of Nitrostyrenes and Benzonitriles

Unprecedented in literature, the conversion of aryl alkenes into β-nitrostyrenes (2) or benzonitriles (3) with sodium nitrite can be governed by an appropriate choice of ionic liquid (IL) medium. A general trend was found for the selectivity of these processes, which depends on the nature of IL, with imidazolium-based ILs, such as [Bmim]Cl, that favor the C–H nitration leading to β-nitrostyrenes, while tetraalkylammonium-based ILs, such as TBAA, privilege the C=C bond cleavage affording benzonitriles. Besides a substrate scope, mechanistic hypotheses were provided on the origin of the different selectivity in the two kinds of ILs, based on their own tunable properties such as polarity, viscosity, and solvent cage effects.