Synthesis and characterization of some dihydroxy acrylonitrile derivatives

Within the scope of the thesis, acrylonitrile derivatives, which have an important place in the literature recently, have been synthesized. With the use of acrylonitrile derivatives in different fields, the need for acrylonitrile production is increasing day by day. For this reason, both academia and industry are investigating various synthesis routes to produce acrylonitrile and its derivatives in high yields, using fewer chemicals and more economically. In recent years, microwave assisted reactions have been used in the realization of various reactions due to their simplicity, short time, fast and economical, not requiring the use of solvents and chemicals, reducing the formation of by-products and having very high yields. This microwave-assisted modern heating method, which is deemed suitable for the goal of green chemistry, brings an important originality to our thesis study. In the thesis study, firstly, dimethoxy substituted phenylacrylonitrile compounds 3(a-h) were synthesized by Knoevenagel Condensation reaction of 3,4-dimethoxybenzaldehyde compound with various phenyl acetonitrile derivatives. The methoxy groups in the dimethoxy substituted phenylacrylonitrile compounds obtained by Knoevenagel Condensation reaction were converted to their final products dihydroxy substituted phenylacrylonitrile compounds 4(a-h) by demethylation method in a domestic microwave oven and their characterizations were carried out.The synthesized dihydroxy substituted phenylacrylonitrile acrylonitrile compounds, 2-phenyl-3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)acrylonitrile, 2-(3-methylphenyl)-3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)acrylonitrile, 2-(4-methyl phenyl)-3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)acrylonitrile, 2-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-(3,4-dihydroxy phenyl)acrylonitrile, 2-(4-fluorophenyl)-3-(3,4-dihydroxy phenyl)acrylonitrile, 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)-3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)acrylonitrile, 2-(3-trifluoromethylphenyl)-3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)acrylonitrile and 2-(4-trifluoromethylphenyl)-3-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)acrylonitrile derivatives. The structures of all intermediate and final products synthesized within the scope of the thesis were characterized using spectroscopic methods (1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, FT-IR) and the final products were characterized using elemental analysis technique. In addition, the molecular structures of the synthesized 2-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl) acrylonitrile 3(d), 2-(4-fluorophenyl)-3-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)acrylonitrile 3(e) and 2-(4-methoxyphenyl)-3-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)acrylonitrile 3(f) compounds were elucidated by X-ray crystallography.