Chemoselective O-Alkylation of 4-(Trifluoromethyl)pyrimidin-2(1H)-ones Using 4-(Iodomethyl)pyrimidines

[Image: see text] This study reports two strategies for preparing O-alkyl derivatives of 6-substituted-4-(trifluoromethyl)pyrimidin-(1H)-ones: a linear protocol of alkylation, using a CCC-building block followed by [3 + 3]-type cyclocondensation with 2-methylisothiourea sulfate and a convergent protocol based on direct alkylation, using 4-(iodomethyl)-2-(methylthio)-6-(trihalomethyl)pyrimidines. It was found that the cyclocondensation strategy is not feasible; thus, the direct chemoselective O-alkylation was performed, and 18 derivatives of the targeted pyrimidines were obtained in 70–98% yields. The structure of the products was unambiguously determined via single crystal X-ray analyses and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance experiments.