Butyronitrile or butanenitrile or propyl cyanide, is a
nitrile
In organic chemistry, a nitrile is any organic compound that has a functional group. The name of the compound is composed of a base, which includes the carbon of the , suffixed with "nitrile", so for example is called " propionitrile" (or pr ...
with the formula C
3H
7CN. This colorless liquid is miscible with most polar organic solvents.
Uses
Butyronitrile is mainly used as a precursor to the poultry drug
amprolium
Amprolium is the organic compound sold as a coccidiostat used in poultry. It has many International Nonproprietary Names.
__TOC__
Uses in coccidiosis treatment in poultry
The drug is a thiamine analogue and blocks the thiamine transporter of '' ...
.
[Peter Pollak, Gérard Romeder, Ferdinand Hagedorn, Heinz-Peter Gelbke "Nitriles" ''Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry'' 2002, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. ]
It also has recognized use in the synthesis of
Etifelmine.
Synthesis
Butyronitrile is prepared industrially by the
ammoxidation
In organic chemistry, ammoxidation is a process for the production of nitriles () using ammonia () and oxygen (). It is sometimes called the SOHIO process, acknowledging that ammoxidation was developed at Standard Oil of Ohio. The usual substrate ...
of
''n''-butanol:
:C
3H
7CH
2OH + NH
3 + O
2 → C
3H
7CN + 3 H
2O
Occurrence in space
Butyronitrile has been detected in the
Large Molecule Heimat
The Large Molecule Heimat is a dense gas cloud located in the molecular cloud Sagittarius B2. Many species of molecule, including aminoacetonitrile (a molecule related to glycine
Glycine (symbol Gly or G; ) is an amino acid that has a ...
in Sagittarius B2 cloud along with other complex organic molecules.
References
External links
NIST Chemistry WebBook page for C4H7N
{{Molecules detected in outer space
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