PROCESS FOR PREPARING DINITRILES Russian patent published in 1999 - IPC

FIELD: chemical industry. SUBSTANCE: invention describes process for preparing dinitriles by hydrocyanation of linear pentenenitriles optionally containing insignificant amounts of other nitriles with cyanohydrogen in the presence of aqueous catalyst solution containing nickel compound and sulfonated phosphine of formula I: wherein M is cation residue selected so that compound of formula I is soluble in water; Y₁,Y₂,Y₃ are the same or different selected from group consisting of alkyl containing 1-4 carbon atoms, alkoxyl containing 1-4 carbon atoms and halogen atom; n₁,n₂,n₃ are identical or different integers of 0-3, at least one of them is 1; m₁,m₂m₃ are identical or different integers of 0-3; Ar₁,Ar₂,Ar₃ are phenyl. Said catalyst solution contains one Lewis acid. EFFECT: improved linearity and longer service life of the catalyst. 17 cl, 49 ex, 5 tbl