Ruthenium(II) carbonyl complexes designed with arsine and PNO/PNS ligands as catalysts for N-alkylation of amines via hydrogen autotransfer process

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.

Biorenewable carbon-supported Ru catalyst for N-alkylation of amines with alcohols and selective hydrogenation of nitroarenes

A renewable carbon-supported Ru catalyst (Ru/PNC-700) facilely prepared via simple impregnation followed by the pyrolysis process for N-alkylation of anilines with benzyl alcohol and chemoselective hydrogenation of nitroarenes.

Thiosemicarbazone Complexes of Transition Metals as Catalysts for Cross-Coupling Reactions

Catalysis of cross-coupling reactions under phosphane-free conditions represents an important ongoing challenge. Although transition metal complexes based on the thiosemicarbazone unit have been known for a very long time, their use in homogeneous catalysis has been studied only relatively recently. In particular, reports of cross-coupling catalytic reactions with such complexes have appeared only in the last 15 years. This review provides a survey of the research in this area and a discussion of the prospects for future developments.

Ruthenium Catalyzed Tandem Pictet-Spengler Reaction

We report a pyridyl-phosphine ruthenium(II) catalyzed tandem alcohol amination/Pictet-Spengler reaction sequence to synthesize tetrahydro-β-carbolines from an alcohol and tryptamine. Our conditions use a Lewis acid cocatalyst, In(OTf)₃, that is compatible with typically base catalyzed amination and an acid catalyzed Pictet-Spengler cyclization. This method proceeds well with benzylic alcohols, heterocyclic carbinols, and aliphatic alcohols. We also show how combining this reaction with a subsequent cycloamination enables a direct synthesis of tetracyclic alkaloids like harmicine.

Preparation of the Ru3(CO)8-pyridine-alcohol cluster and its use for the selective catalytic transformation of primary to secondary amines

The synthesis of pyridine alcohol based ruthenium carbonyl clusters Ru3(hep)2(CO)8 (1), Ru3(hpp)2(CO)8 (2), and Ru3(bhmp-H)2(CO)8 (3) {hep-H = 2-(2-hydroxyethyl)pyridine, hpp-H = 2-(3-hydroxypropyl)pyridine and bhmp-H2 = 2,6-bis(hydroxymethyl)pyridine} has been carried out by the reaction of the corresponding pyridine-alcohol ligands with Ru3(CO)12. Clusters 1-3 have been characterized using elemental analysis, NMR, FT-IR, mass spectrometry and single-crystal X-ray structures. The clusters were explored for the selective catalytic transformation of primary amines into secondary amines using alcohols as the mono-alkylating agents via hydrogen transfer reactions. All three display efficient catalytic activity with 1 being the most effective.

Oxidant-free synthesis of benzimidazoles from alcohols and aromatic diamines catalysed by new Ru(ii)-PNS(O) pincer complexes

A greener method for synthesizing 2-substituted benzimidazole through the acceptorless dehydrogenative condensation of alcohols and ortho-arylenediamine is developed.

Towards a general ruthenium-catalyzed hydrogenation of secondary and tertiary amides to amines

A broad range of secondary and tertiary amides has been hydrogenated to the corresponding amines under mild conditions using an in situ catalyst generated by combining [Ru(acac)3], 1,1,1-tris(diphenylphosphinomethyl)ethane (Triphos) and Yb(OTf)3. The presence of the metal triflate allows to mitigate reaction conditions compared to previous reports thus improving yields and selectivities in the desired amines. The excellent isolated yields of two scale-up experiments corroborate the feasibility of the reaction protocol. Control experiments indicate that, after the initial reduction of the amide carbonyl group, the reaction proceeds through the reductive amination of the alcohol with the amine arising from collapse of the intermediate hemiaminal.