One-pot chemoenzymatic synthesis of nitriles from primary alcohols using different acetic acid bacteria and a recombinant aldoxime dehydratase from R. globerulus

Nitriles have wide application in different chemical fields, being particularly useful and versatile intermediates in synthetic organic chemistry; i.e., they can be reduced to amines or hydrolyzed to amides and/or carboxylic acids. Preparation of nitriles from primary alcohols is normally a “three-reaction synthesis”, including oxidation to aldehydes (which are sometimes not very stable), condensation with hydroxylamine and their further dehydration to nitriles. Here we propose a new multi-catalysed chemoenzymatic approach for preparing nitriles from primary alcohols. Nitriles have wide application in different chemical fields, being particularly useful and versatile intermediates in synthetic organic chemistry; i.e., they can be reduced to amines or hydrolyzed to amides and/or carboxylic acids. Preparation of nitriles from primary alcohols is normally a “three-reaction synthesis”, including oxidation to aldehydes (which are sometimes not very stable), condensation with hydroxylamine and their further dehydration to nitriles. Here we propose a new multi-catalysed chemoenzymatic approach for preparing nitriles from primary alcohols.