Sodium chloride: a proficient additive for the synthesis of pyridine derivatives in aqueous medium

In the present work, a facile and convenient synthesis of substituted pyridines has been developed via a one-pot multicomponent reaction of easily available aromatic aldehydes, malononitrile and thiophenol under aqueous media and in the presence of NaCl as mild conditions. A series of functionalized pyridines were thus obtained by this multicomponent reaction, in which four new bonds were formed. Particularly valuable features of this protocol including mild conditions, simple execution, broad substrate scope and good yields of products make it an efficient and promising synthetic strategy to build pyridine skeleton.