Dehydration of amides and oximes can be catalysed by 3 Å molecular sieves or by tungsten trioxide under flash vacuum pyrolysis (FVP) conditions. This provides a convenient synthesis of aliphatic, aromatic, and heterocyclic nitriles, generally in excellent yields under mild, neutral, and short contact time conditions.
gas-phase reaction - amides - oximes - nitriles - heterogeneous catalysis