Shklyaev3,3,-Dialkyl-1-cyano-3,4-dihydroisoquinolines were prepared by Beckmann defragmentation of ethyl α-(3,3-dialkyl-3,4-dihydroisoquinol-1-yl)-α-hydroximinoacetates and they take part in a Ritter reaction to form substituted bis-1,1'-(3,4-dihydroisoquinolines).As heterocyclic analogs of 1,1'-binaphthyl systems, bis-1,1'-isoquinolines are promising ligands for the preparation of metallocomplex catalysts since coordination with a metal is possible at the nitrogen atoms [1]. A method is known for the Ullman preparation [2] of bis-1,1'-isoquinolines while 3,4-dihydro derivatives are not formed under these conditions and they are rather inaccessible compounds. Bis-1,1'-(3,4-dihydroisoquinolines) unsubstituted in position 3 have been previously obtained using a Bischler-Napieralski reaction by the action of POCl 3 in acetonitrile [3] or Tf 2 O in the presence of 4-N,N-dimethylaminopyridine [4] on the corresponding oxamide. In the current work we propose a route to bis-1,1'-(3,4-dihydroisoquinolines) which is based on the Ritter reaction [5,6].A second order Beckmann rearrangement [7,8] of ethyl α-(3,3-dialkyl-3,4-dihydroisoquinol-1-yl)-αhydroximinoacetates 1a-c using the method [9, 10] gave the nitriles 2a-c. Despite the simplicity it should be noted that the indicated method is poorly reproducible in our hands, the yields of the products 2 differing markedly from one experiment to another.The nitrile 2a was also prepared by the dehydration of 3,3-dimethyl-3,4-dihydroisoquinolylaldoxime 3 [11] in refluxing xylene using a known method [12] (see Experimental section. The hydrochloride 3.HCl has been reported before [13]).The Ritter reaction of nitriles 2a-c and carbinols 4a-c (stirring the reagents in a mixture of toluene and conc. H 2 SO 4 at 20°C) gave 42-71% yields of compounds 5a-e (Tables 1 and 2). According to this scheme another combination of nitrile and carbinol is possible which leads to both symmetrical and unsymmetrical bis-1,1'-(3,4-dihydroisoquinolines) 5. Compound 5c was also prepared in somewhat lower yield (37%) by the condensation of nitrile 2b with veratrole and isobutylene oxide using method [14] (Scheme 1).A feature of the 1 H NMR spectrum of compound 5b is the small shift of the H-8 signal of the 6,7-dimethoxy-substituted ring to high field by about 0.2 ppm when compared with the H-8 signal of 6,7-dimethoxy-1,3,3-trimethyl-3,4-dihydroisoquinoline [14] and this is due to the anistropic effect of the neighboring 3,4-dihydroisoquinoline fragment. A similar high field shift caused by a benzene ring has previously been observed by us in the case of 6,7-dimethoxy-3,3-dimethyl-1-phenyl-3,4-dihydroisoquinoline [14].0009-3122/05/4104-0475©2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. nitrile 2b (0.3 g, 1.23 mmol) and carbinol 4a (0.2 ml, 1.25 mmol) in toluene (20 ml) was added to conc. H 2 SO 4 (10 ml) and the mixture obtained was stirred for 2 h at 20°C and poured into water (100 ml).The aqueous layer was separated, washed with toluene (15 ml) and NH 4 OH (25%) was then added to pH ~ 8. The product was ext...