Dichloroacetonitrile

Dichloroacetonitrile can be used as a reactant to prepare:

• Chiral α, α-dichloro-β-aminonitriles via Pd-catalyzed enantioselective Mannich-type reaction with imines.
• α, α-dialkyl-substituted nitriles by an alkylation reaction with trialkylboranes in the presence of phenoxide base as a base.
• Halogenated pyridines via copper-catalyzed reaction with methacrolein.
• α,α-dichloro-β-hydroxy nitriles by condensation reaction with aldehydes and ketones in the presence of an alkoxide base.
• Selenium heterocycle derivatives via Diels–Alder cyclization with selenoaldehydes.
• Dichloroacetonitrile can also be used to develop an efficient method for the extraction and determination of common volatile halogenated disinfection by-products using the static headspace technique coupled with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Dichloroacetonitrile is direct-acting mutagen and induces DNA strand breaks in cultured human lymphoblastic cells. It induces apoptosis or necrosis in murine macrophage cell line via reactive oxygen intermediates-mediated oxidative mechanisms of cellular damage.