Synthesis of 4(3H)quinazolinimines by reaction of (E)-N-(aryl)-acetimidoyl or -benzimidoyl chloride with amines.

An efficient one-step method to access 4(3H)quinazolinimines by reaction of phenylchloroimines with 2-aminobenzonitrile is described. The reaction of (E)-N-(2-cyanophenyl)benzimidoyl chloride with substituted anilines that yields a number of their corresponding C2, N3-substituted quinazoliniminium chlorides or neutral products is also reported. These methods provide direct and flexible access to diverse substituted iminoquinazolines substituted at the C2, N3-positions. All the new compounds were fully characterized and six examples are given with their single-crystal X-ray structure.