Novel cycloaddition of nitriles with monolithio- and dilithiobutadienes.

Two novel and synthetically useful reaction patterns of organolithium compounds with nitriles are reported to afford pyridine derivatives as the final products. Both 1-lithio-1,3-dienes and 1,4-dilithio-1,3-dienes, which can be easily generated in situ by lithiation of their corresponding iodo compounds, react with nitriles in the presence of HMPA to form substituted pyridines including 2,2'-bipyridines and tetrahydroisoquinolines in high yields.