A general synthesis of substituted amidines has been worked out starting from a nitrile compound, an alkyl halide, a Lewis acid and an amine. The method involves 4 steps: In practice, the amidine 5 is obtained in a one-pot synthesis and none of the intermediates 2, 3 or 4 needs to be isolated. Overall yields of 40–80% based on the nitrile 1 are obtained. More than twenty new mono-, di or trisubstituted amidines have been prepared by this ...
