A novel synthesis of 1,4-dialkyl-5-aryl-4-imidazolin-2-ones 3 has been
achieved by reaction of alpha-bromo ketimines 2 with potassium cyanat
e in dimethylformamide. The structural assignment of these heterocycle
s was performed by spectrometric methods, comparison with a known comp
ound and X-ray crystallographic analysis of the acetyl derivative 8.