a) Suspend 5.45 g (34.8 mmol) benzenecarboximidamide hydrochloride hydrate and 4.10 g (73.1 mmol) potassium carbonate in 50 mL of ethanol at 90 °C with stirring in an atmosphere of dry air. Slowly 20.0 g (69.7 mmol) of (E)-1-(3-bromophenyl)-3-phenylprop-2-en-1-one dissolved in 20 mL of hot ethoxyethanol was added dropwise. After 24 hours of reaction, the mixture was cooled to 25 °C, the solid product was collected by filtration and washed sequentially with ethanol, water and ethanol, the resulting crude product was used directly in step b) without further purification.
