Hydrocyanation of Non‐Activated Alkenes Without Handling HCN

Abstract

The hydrocyanation of alkenes can be considered a straightforward methodology that gives access to different functionalized organic chemistry entities. This is due to nitrile's high versatility, which can easily undergo further transformations. However, this process has traditionally employed hazardous hydrogen cyanide as the hydrocyanation agent. Therefore, in the last decades, different protocols have been developed to accomplish this key organic transformation without needing to handle HCN. In this review, we aim to gather the most recent works published in the last couple of decades regarding the hydrocyanation of non‐activated olefins in the absence of gaseous hydrogen cyanide as nitrile source. In addition, special attention has been paid to the reaction mechanism working in each case.