Question

Alkyl cyanides undergo Stephen reduction to produce

• A. aldehyde
• B. secondary amine
• C. primary amine
• D. amide

Answer 1

Answer: (A)

aldehyde

Answer 2

An alkyl cyanide is dissolved in ether or better in ethyl formate or ethyl acetate, and reduced with $SnCl _{2}$ and $HCl$, and then steam distilled. This whole process is called Stephen reaction. In this process alkyl cyanide is reduced to aldehyde.
$CH _{3}- C \equiv= N +2[ H ]+ HCl \ce{->[{ SnCl _{2}+ HCl }][{\text { ether }}]}$

There is no analogous method for the preparation