Reactions of some ortho and para halogenated aromatic nitriles with ethylenediamine: selective synthesis of imidazolines

The reaction of ethylenediamine (EDA) with ortho and/or para halogenated benzonitriles did not lead to the imidazolines expected: a competitive aromatic nucleophilic substitution (SNAr) was observed instead. The selective synthesis of these imidazolines was performed by nucleophilic addition of EDA to thiobenzamide derivatives. The difference in reactivity between the nitrile and thioamide derivatives was estimated by a frontier orbital approach at the RHF/6-31G** level which predicted a greater reactivity of substituted thiobenzamides towards the nucleophilic addition of EDA.