Ruthenium N‐Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes for Chemoselective Reduction of Imines and Reductive Amination of Aldehydes and Ketones

Electronically tuneable orthometalated RuII–NHC complexes as efficient catalysts for C–C and C–N bond formations via borrowing hydrogen strategy

A series of simple and electronically tuneable cyclometalated RuII–NHC complexes have been explored as efficient catalysts for various C–C/N bond forming reactions via a BH methodology.

Regio- and Stereoselective (SN2) N-, O-, C- and S-Alkylation Using Trialkyl Phosphates

Bimolecular nucleophilic substitution (SN2) is one of the most well-known fundamental reactions in organic chemistry to generate new molecules from two molecules. In principle, a nucleophile attacks from the back side of an alkylating agent having a suitable leaving group, most commonly a halide. However, alkyl halides are expensive, very harmful, toxic and not so stable, which makes them problematic for laboratory use. In contrast, trialkyl phosphates are inexpensive, readily accessible and stable at room temperature, under air, and are easy to handle, but rarely used as alkylating agents in organic synthesis. Here, we describe a mild, straightforward and powerful method for nucleophilic alkylation of various N-, O-, C- and S-nucleophiles using readily available trialkyl phosphates. The reaction proceeds smoothly in excellent yield, and quantitative yield in many cases, and covers a wide range of substrates. Further, the rare stereoselective transfer of secondary alkyl groups has been achieved with inversion of configuration of chiral centers (up to 98% ee).

Half-sandwich Ru(ii) arene complexes bearing benzimidazole ligands for the N-alkylation reaction of aniline with alcohols in a solvent-free medium

In this article, the direct N-alkylation reactions of amines with alcohol derivatives using the borrowing hydrogen methodology have been investigated.