No abstract

References and Notes (1) During the course of study on the preparation of tetracyanoethylene, Cairns and co-workers2 obtained 7-cyano-7-ethoxycarbonylbicydo[4.1.0] heptane in 10% yield by the reaction of ethyl dibromocyanoacetate with copper in the presence of cyclohexene. The reaction of dibromomalononitrile with copper in the presence of cyclohexene was also suggested to afford 7,7-dicyanobicyclo [4.1 .Ojheptane, although the structure of the product was not finally elucidated. These experiments are previous examples of reaction 1, but details are not available in the literature.(2) T.