Abstract Oxygen nucleophiles such as water, alcohols and phenols, have been reacted with alkyldicyanamides (1). Selective addition to one of the cyano groups only was effected by a careful control of the reaction conditions. The reactions have been employed for the synthesis of a number of novel 1-alkyl-1-cyanoureas (2), 1, 2-dialkyl-1-cyanoisoureas (5) and 1-alkyl-2-aryl-1-cyanoisoureas (7). The reactivity of the cyano group in 1 has been ...
