“…Phenacyl cyanides 311 [ 579 , 580 , 581 , 582 , 583 , 584 , 585 , 586 , 587 , 588 , 589 , 590 ] and phenacyl thiocyanates 312 [ 591 , 592 , 593 , 594 , 595 ] have been proven to be valuable tools for the synthesis of a wide variety of heterocyclic compounds. They are simply prepared via the reaction of α-haloketones with alkali metal cyanides and thiocyanates, respectively (Eq 7).…”