Micelle-Enabled One-Pot Guanidine Synthesis in Water Directly from Isothiocyanate using Hypervalent Iodine(III) Reagents under Mild Conditions

In this work, we developed a one-pot synthesis of guanidine directly from isothiocyanate using DIB (diacetoxyiodobenzene) as a desulfurizing agent under micellar conditions in water. Our optimization study revealed that the use of 1 % TPGS-750-M as a surfactant with NaOH as an additive base at room temperature can convert a variety of isothiocyanates and amines into corresponding guanidines in excellent yields (69-95 %). This synthetic process in water can be applied to prepare guanidine at gram-scale quantity. Our aqueous micellar medium also demonstrated high reusability as the reaction can be performed for several cycles without losing its efficiency. The reaction is metal-free, utilizes water as solvent and practical (room temperature and open flask).