Protection of carboxylic acids as 2-cyanoethyl esters can be accomplished by DCC-DMAP coupling. The esters can be cleaved with TBAF in DMF-THF: Chem. Pharm. Bull., 42, 147 (1994), or Na2S in methanol: Chem. Pharm. Bull., 42, 1579 (1994).
Can also be used to protect the phosphate group, by condensation with 2,4,6-Triisopropyl-benzenesulfonyl- chloride, A11458: Chem. Pharm. Bull., 25, 2844 (1977), or DCC: J. Am. Chem. Soc., 83, 159 (1961). Cleavage can be effected with an amine: Tetrahedron Lett., 23, 5119 (1982), ammonia: J. Org. Chem., 59, 2482 (1994); Tetrahedron Lett., 35, 4311 (1994), or TBAF: Tetrahedron Lett., 1255 (1976).
Precursor of 2-cyanoethyl 2,2,2-trichloroethyl phosphorochloridate, a reagent for the phosphorylation of nucleosides: Synthesis, 831 (1980);