Reaction of CO2 and CS2 with aniline catalyzed by AlCl3 under mild condition

The reactions of aniline with CO2 and CS2 were investigated in the presence of sublimed AlCl3 under the mild conditions (room temperature and ambient atmosphere). Reasonable mechanism, electrophilic substitution of carbonium and nitronium, was also provided according to GC/MS analysis of the reaction products. The resulting N,N'-diphenylurea(DPU, high selectivity of 92.5mol%) and N,N'-diphenyl thiourea (DPTU, high yield and selectivity of 80.1mol% and 99.7mol%, respectively) were purified by recrystallizing from ethanol and identified by melting point, element analysis, GC/MS, FTIR, UV and H-1 NMR data.