Efficient synthesis of β-aminonitriles from arynes and imines in acetonitrile.

Multicomponent reactions are powerful strategies for synthesizing complex molecules in an efficient manner. In this work, we investigate a novel multicomponent reaction involving arynes, imines, and nitriles, leading to chiral β-aminonitriles. Notably, two new bonds (C-C and C-N) are formed in one step without the use of metal catalysts, showing the great potential of this transformation. We demonstrate that this synthetic methodology is compatible with different arynes and imines, and propose a reasonable reaction mechanism initiated by the nucleophilic addition of the imine to the aryne.