Patent ID: 7485741

Claim:
A process, for hydrocyanating an ethylenically unsaturated nitrile compound to dinitrile, comprising the step of reacting said nitrile with hydrogen cyanide, in the presence of a catalyst system comprising: at least one transition metal compound, at least one compound of formula (I) below: wherein: X 1 and X 2, which are identical or different, represent an oxygen atom or the divalent radical NR2, wherein R2 represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl, aryl, sulphonyl, cycloalkyl or carbonyl radical, , X 3 represents a covalent bond, an oxygen atom or the divalent radical NR2, wherein R2 represents a hydrogen atom, an alkyl, aryl, sulphonyl, cycloalkyl or carbonyl radical, the radical R 1 represents a linear or branched alkyl radical having from 1 to 12 carbon atoms optionally having hetero atoms, or a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic or cycloaliphatic radical optionally having hetero atoms or one or more rings in fused or nonfused form, and L represents a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic having one ring in fused form, and a cocatalyst consisting of at least one Lewis acid.