Cyanomethine

Cyanomethine is an amino and methylated derivative of pyrimidine with the chemical formula, belonging to a class named cyanalkines.

Properties

Cyanomethine is a strongly basic colourless to white crystalline solid. It is soluble in water and slightly soluble in alcohol.
Cyanomethine can form complexes with platinum and platinum compounds.

Synthesis

Cyanomethine is prepared by the trimerisation of acetonitrile with sodium or potassium, with the corresponding metal cyanide and as the main byproducts. It can also made by reaction of sodium methoxide and acetonitrile.
The correspondence of the three acetonitrile units to a tautomer of cyanomethine is:
At higher pressure, sodium methoxide instead catalyzes trimerization to form 2,4,6-Trimethyl-1,3,5-triazine.
2,6-Diethyl-5-methyl-4-pyrimidinamine is an analogous structure that can be made by trimerization of propionitrile.