A General Synthesis of α-Substituted Acrylonitriles

Abstract
During a study of synthetic approaches to naturally-occurring sesquiterpene lactones, a new synthesis of the α-methylene-y-butyrolactone group was developed1 and has subsequently been applied to the synthesis of various types of α-methylenecarbonyl compounds.2 The synthetic scheme suggested that α-substituted acrylonitriles would also be available by this method.