“…It has been well established that all neutral
(n=0, 2, 4) species are very stable in MeCN
[12a,b,13] . However, in aqueous media all slowly decompose to α,α‐dicyano‐p‐toluoylcyanide
) and fluoro derivatives, dicyano‐p‐toluoylcyanide
, n=2, 4), respectively, with HCN as the hydrolysis side product, see Figure (2).…”