Research Progress on the Synthesis of Nitrogen-Containing Compounds with Cyanamide as a Building Block

Nitrogen-containing compounds are widely found in many natural products and have a wide range of pharmaco-logical and physiological activities. Furthermore, they have comprehensive applications in medicine and pesticide fields, industry and multi-functional materials. Great advances in the synthesis of these compounds have been sprung up, a diversity of synthetic methods of them via cyanamide (NH2-CN) as raw material were exploited in recent years. The research progress on the synthesis of nitrogen-containing compounds through cyanamide as a building block is introduced comprehensively. Moreover, their characteristics, rules, advantages and disadvantages are summarized and discussed for the development of new synthetic methodologies and reactions of nitrogen-containing compounds.