Importance of acetonitrile

Acetonitrile is a stable compound, which is not easy to be oxidized or reduced, but there is a three bond between carbon and nitrogen, which is prone to addition reaction. In the presence of acid or base, it is hydrolyzed to produce amide, and further hydrolyzed to acid: it is reduced to produce ethylamine. Reacting with Grignard reagent, the product is hydrolyzed to ketone. Acetonitrile can react with sodium metal, sodium alcohol or sodium amino.

Acetonitrile is an important chemical reagent. It is used in the pharmaceutical industry to synthesize vitamin A, cortisone, carboamine drugs and their intermediates, as well as vitamin BL and amino acids. Acetonitrile is also used as extractant of fatty acids, alcohol denaturant, butadiene extractant and solvent of acrylonitrile synthetic fiber. It also has many uses in the fields of fabric dyeing, spices and photosensitive materials.

There are many production methods of acetonitrile, among which the industrial production mainly includes acetic acid ammoniation method; Acetylene ammoniation method and propylene ammoxidation by-product method, etc. Propylene is the byproduct of ammoxidation of acetonitrile; When acrylonitrile is synthesized with ammonia and air as raw materials through catalyst, acetonitrile is also a by-product. 25-100kg acetonitrile can be produced per ton of acrylonitrile.