The application of alkyl and aryl substituted cyanamides in synthetic chemistry has diversified multi-fold in recent years. In this review, we discuss recent advances (since 2012) in the chemistry of cyanamides and detail their application in cycloaddition chemistry, aminocyanation reactions, as well as electrophilic cyanide-transfer agents and their unique radical and coordination chemistry.

An unprecedented intermolecular cyclizative capture of the cyanamide anion and several nitrile oxides enables the synthesis of oxadiazol-5-imines.

A convenient method for the synthesis of 1,2,4-triazol-3-imines through a selective, formal, 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of organo-cyanamide ions with nitrile imine dipoles is reported. Hydrolysis of the 1,2,4-triazol-3-imines yields the corresponding 1,2,4-triazol-5-ones. A stepwise mechanism, supported by DFT calculations, is invoked to explain the reaction selectivity.

We demonstrate the novel spiroannulation of exoimines with 1,3-dipoles, for the first time, leading to 3D spirocycles with a secondary amine (NH) in the spiro-ring. The synthetic method described herein allows access to these previously unexplored heterospirocyclic cores that have application in the discovery of functional molecules for medicinal and materials science. This was demonstrated by discovering an unprecedented class of heterospirocycles with antimalarial activity against the human protozoan P. falciparum.

Further transformations of the title products into 1,2,4‐oxadiazol‐5‐(4H)‐ones as well as amidines are described.