Various aryl nitriles were readily synthesized from aerobic oxidation of substituted benzyl alcohols in deep eutectic solvent composed of choline chloride (ChCl) and p-toluenesulfonic acid (p-TsOH) in the presence of 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO), followed by condensation with hydroxylamine hydrochloride. High yields of corresponding nitriles have been obtained under mild reactions conditions. This strategy belongs to a novel and environmentally benign transition-metal-free one-pot cascade process for the synthesis of nitriles.
