A copper-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of guanidine nitrate with aryl iodides was used for the formation of N, N′-disubstituted guanidines to be used as potential therapeutics for strokes. A relatively inexpensive commercially available guanidine salt and a series of aryl iodides together with copper iodide and N, N-diethylsalicylamide as an efficient catalyst/ligand system provided a simple diarylation procedure.
[Reddy, N. Laxma; Hu, Lain-Yen; Cotter, Ronald E.; Fischer, James B.; Wong, Wen Jee; et al. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 1994 , vol. 37, # 2 p. 260 - 267]
