Green synthesis of benzonitrile using ionic liquid with multiple roles as the recycling agent.

Preparation of benzonitrile from benzaldehyde and hydroxylamine hydrochloride is one of the most advantageous approaches. Nevertheless, it suffers from various constraints such as longer reaction time, corrosion and recovery of hydrochloric acid, the use of metal salt catalysts and their separation. For these reasons, a novel green benzonitrile synthetic route was proposed with ionic liquid as the recycling agent in this study.