Direct Three‐Component Synthesis of α‐Cyano Acrylates Involving Cascade Knoevenagel Reaction and Esterification

Abstract A direct three‐component approach has been developed for the synthesis of α ‐cyano acrylates starting from aldehydes, alcohols and α ‐cyano acetamide by employing cyanuric chloride as an organocatalyst. A class of structurally diverse α ‐cyano acrylates have been provided with good to excellent yields via the cascade transformation of Knoevenagel condensation and amide esterification.