Grignard reaction:

Nitriles can be treated along with Grignard reagents or organolithium reagents to provide ketones.

Figure: Nitriles react with Grignard reagent or organolithium reagents to produce ketones.

Grignard reagents gibe the equivalent of a nucleophilic carbanion that can attack the electrophilic carbon of a nitrile group. One of the π bonds is broken concurrently resultant in an intermediate imine anion that is converted to a ketone while treated with aqueous acid.

Figure: Mechanism of the Grignard reaction on a nitrile group.