A General synthesis of N‐methylsubstituted amidines Via N‐methylnitrilium fluorosulfates.(1)

Abstract

AbstractA general one‐pot synthesis of N‐methyl‐N'‐disubstituted and N‐methyl‐N',N'‐trisubstituted amidines has been worked out using N‐methylnitrilium fluorosulfates 3 as intermediate. The method involves the N‐methylation of a nitrile compound (e. g. acetonitrile or benzonitrile) with the commercially available methyl fluorosulfate (magic methyl). The crude nitrilium salt 3 is submitted without any further purification to the amination with an aliphatic and/or an aromatic primary or secondary amine. The yields range from 51 to 84 % based on the nitrile. Most of the amidines have not been described before (see table 1).