Clean and facile synthesis of triuret from urea and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) under mild conditions

Abstract

Triuret has been successfully synthesized by the reaction of urea with dimethyl carbonate (DMC) under mild conditions in the presence of potassium methoxide as a catalyst. It has been fully characterized by FT-IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and MS. Effects of the catalyst, the molar ratio of starting materials, and the reaction time on the obtained product were examined in detail. It was found that when n (urea): n (DMC)=1.2: 1, 6 h, and 0.8% catalyst, the yield of triuret can reach 98.1%. Especially, this novel procedure is reported for the first time and has many significant advantages such as easy and clean synthesis, simple work up, and high yields.