Cyanoethylation of alcohols catalyzed by a novel aqueous agar gel-entrapped NaOH catalyst Original Research Article

An aqueous solution of NaOH was entrapped in a gel matrix of agar agar to obtain a hard solid gel (composition 60% water:10% NaOH:30% agar agar), which was used to catalyze cyanoethylation of various primary aliphatic alcohols with acrylonitrile under very mild conditions in very good yields.