Electrochemical Synthesis of Cyanoformamides from Trichloroacetonitrile and Secondary Amines Mediated by the B12 Derivative.

The B12 derivative, heptamethyl cobyrinate, -mediated electrochemical synthesis of cyanoformamides has been developed. Aerobic oxygenation of the carbon-centered radical initiated in situ generation of the reactive acyl chloride intermediate, which led to cyanoformamides in the presence of an amine. This one-pot and scalable synthetic method has been demonstrated with 41 examples up to 94% yields with 21 new compounds. The mechanism of electrolysis mediated by the B12 derivative has been proposed based on the DFT calculations.