Electrophilically activated nitroalkanes in reaction with aliphatic diamines en route to imidazolines

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. Material from this article can be used in other publications provided that the correct acknowledgement is given with the reproduced material and it is not used for commercial purposes.A novel synthetic methodology for the assembly of imidazolines via an unusual reaction between nitroalkanes and aliphatic 1,2-diamines in the presence of phosphorous acid is described. In contrast to the related highly efficient preparation of benzimidazoles from aromatic amines, this process represents a major synthetic challenge and for a long time was elusive. Analysis of the method limitations is provided