LAUSR

A concise, efficient and versatile synthesis of amino-substituted benzo[b]pyrimido[5,4-f]azepines is described: starting from a 5-allyl-4,6-dichloropyrimidine, the synthesis involves base-catalysed aminolysis followed by intramolecular Friedel-Crafts cyclization. Four new amino-substituted benzo[b]pyrimido[5,4-f]azepines are reported, and all the products and reaction intermediates have been fully characterized by IR, 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, and the molecular and supramolecular structures of three products and one intermediate have been determined. In each of N,2,6,11-tetramethyl-N-phenyl-6,11-dihydro-5H-benzo[b]pyrimido[5,4-f]azepin-4-amine, C22H24N5, (III), 4-(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)-6,11-dimethyl-6,11-dihydro-5H-benzo[b]pyrimido[5,4-f]azepine, which crystallizes as a 0.374-hydrate, C21H19N5·0.374H2O, (VIIIa), and 6,7,9,11-tetramethyl-4-(5-methyl-1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)-6,11-dihydro-5H-benzo[b]pyrimido[5,4-f]azepine, C24H25N5, (VIIIc), the azepine ring adopts a boat conformation, but with a different configuration at the stereogenic centre in (VIIIc), as compared with (III) and (VIIIa). In the intermediate 5-allyl-6-(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)-N-methyl-N-(4-methylphenyl)pyrimidin-4-amine, C22N21N5, (VIIb), the immediate precursor of 4-(1H-benzo[d]imidazol-1-yl)-6,8,11-trimethyl-6,11-dihydro-5H-benzo[b]pyrimido[5,4-f]azepine, (VIIIb), the allyl group is disordered over two sets of atomic sites having occupancies of 0.688 (5) and 0.312 (5). The molecules of (III) are linked into chains by a C-H...π(pyrimidine) hydrogen bond, and those of (VIIb) are linked into complex sheets by three hydrogen bonds, one of the C-H...N type and two of C-H...π(arene) type. The molecules of the organic component in (VIIIa) are linked into a chain of rings by two C-H...π(arene) hydrogen bonds, and these chains are linked into sheets by the water components; a single weak C-H...N hydrogen bond links molecules of (VIIIc) into centrosymmetric R22(10) dimers. Comparisons are made with some related compounds.