Base Metal Catalysts for Deoxygenative Reduction of Amides to Amines

Enantioselective Deoxygenative Amino-Cyanation of Carboxylic Acids via Ti-Multicatalysis

Carboxylic acids are valued synthetic building blocks that offer shelf life stability, structural diversity, and wide commercial availability. Despite the remarkable synthetic utility of carboxylic acids, a direct enantioselective deoxygenative functionalization of carboxylic acids remains rare. We present enantioselective deoxygenative amino-cyanation of carboxylic acids using a novel TiIV-multicatalytic system that catalytically modified each C-O bond of carboxylic acid to C-C, C-N, and C-H bonds, generating enantio-enriched chiral α-amino nitriles (up to 98:2 er).

Advances in Group VI Metal-Catalyzed Homogeneous Hydrogenation and Dehydrogenation Reactions

Transition metal-catalyzed homogeneous hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions for attaining plethora of organic scaffolds have evolved as a key domain of research in academia and industry. These protocols are atom-economic, greener, in line with the goal of sustainability, eventually pave the way for numerous novel environmentally benign methodologies. Appealing progress has been achieved in the realm of homogeneous catalysis utilizing noble metals. Owing to their high cost, less abundance along with toxicity issues led the scientific community to search for sustainable alternatives. In this context, earth- abundant base metals have gained substantial attention culminating enormous progress in recent years, predominantly with pincer-type complexes of nickel, cobalt, iron, and manganese. In this regard, group VI chromium, molybdenum and tungsten complexes have been overlooked and remain underdeveloped despite their earth-abundance and bio-compatibility. This review delineates a comprehensive overview in the arena of homogeneously catalysed (de)hydrogenation reactions using group VI base metals chromium, molybdenum, and tungsten till date. Various reactions have been described; hydrogenation, transfer hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, acceptorless dehydrogenative coupling, hydrogen auto transfer, along with their scope and brief mechanistic insights.

Mild Divergent Semireductive Transformations of Secondary and Tertiary Amides via Zirconocene Hydride Catalysis

The mild catalytic partial reduction of amides to imines has proven to be a challenging synthetic transformation, with many transition metals directly reducing these substrates to amines. Herein, we report a mild, catalytic method for the semireduction of both secondary and tertiary amides via zirconocene hydride catalysis. Utilizing just 5 mol % of Cp2ZrCl2, the reductive deoxygenation of secondary amides is demonstrated to furnish a diverse array of imines in up to 94% yield with excellent chemoselectivity and without the need for glovebox handling. Moreover, a novel reductive transamination of tertiary amides is also achievable when the catalytic protocol is carried out in the presence of a primary amine at room temperature, providing access to an expanded assortment of imines in up to 98% yield. Through slight procedural tuning, the single-flask conversion of amides to imines, aldehydes, amines or enamines is feasible, including multicomponent syntheses.

Synthesis and catalytic performance of nickel phosphinite pincer complexes in deoxygenative hydroboration of amides

A series of imino-POCN^R, amino-POCN^R2, and bis(phosphinite) POCOP pincer complexes of Ni(II) were prepared and tested in catalytic deoxygenative hydroboration of amides with HBPin to the corresponding amines. In contrast to the deoxygenative hydrosilylation approach, primarily developed for tertiary amides, superior reactivity in Ni-catalyzed deoxygenative hydroboration was demonstrated for secondary carboxamides. The bis(phosphinite) hydride complex (POCOP)NiH proved the most active in these reactions, tolerating potentially reducible functionalities such as internal alkenes, esters, nitriles, heteroaromatic compounds, and tertiary amides. Preferable hydroboration of secondary amides was also demonstrated in the presence of primary amide functionalities. The reactions were conducted at 60-80 °C, representing a rare example of a base-metal catalytic system for selective deoxygenation of secondary amides to the corresponding amines under mild conditions. In contrast to secondary amides, deoxygenative hydroboration of primary amides was demonstrated using an iminophosphinite pre-catalyst (POCN^Dmp)Ni(CH₂TMS) (Dmp = 2,6-Me₂C₆H₃). Deoxygenation reactions were suggested to proceed via a direct C-O bond cleavage mechanism, which is triggered by dehydrogenative N-borylation to access more electrophilic N-borylamides amenable to the addition of HBPin to the carbonyl group.

KOtBu-Mediated Reductive Cyanation of Tertiary Amides for Synthesis of α-Aminonitriles

A simple, mild, catalyst-free, and efficacious KO^tBu-mediated reductive cyanation reaction of tertiary amides under hydrosilylation conditions has been described. A series of α-aminonitriles is obtained in moderate to high yield with good functional group tolerance. The reaction works well with a readily available amide substrate, a cheap and versatile base KO^tBu, and a commercially available hydrosilane (EtO)₃SiH and is convenient for workup and purification.

Deoxygenative hydroboration of carboxamides: a versatile and selective synthetic approach to amines

Deoxygenative reduction of amides is considered as an attractive method for preparation of synthetically valuable amines. However, the low electrophilicity of the amide carbonyl group, high thermodynamic stability and kinetic inertness of the amides make their reduction a challenging task. Until recently, most efforts for catalytic deoxygenation of amides to amines were concentrated on hydrogenation and hydrosilylation approaches, which mainly employed precious metal catalysts and often required harsh reaction conditions and showed insufficient selectivities. Moreover, these reactions are mostly limited to secondary and tertiary amides, whereas direct reduction of primary amides to primary amines remained arduous. In contrast, deoxygenative hydroboration of amides, although it appeared less then a decade ago, has already proved advantageous in terms of the amide scope, reaction conditions and selectivity of transformations. This article provides an overview of the developments in hydroboration of amides, focusing on mechanistic aspects of these transformations and advantages of hydroboration compared to hydrogenation and hydrosilylation approaches.

Deoxygenative hydroboration of primary and secondary amides: a catalyst-free and solvent-free approach

In contrast to the recent reports on catalytic hydroboration of amides to amines with pinacolborane (HBpin), a simple catalyst-free and solvent-free method for the hydroboration of a variety of amides has been realized. To get the mechanistic insights, DFT calculations have been performed.

Asymmetric Deoxygenative Alkynylation of Tertiary Amides Enabled by Iridium/Copper Bimetallic Relay Catalysis

A variety of inert tertiary amides have been successfully transformed into synthetically important chiral propargylamines in high yields with good to excellent enantioselectivities via a relayed sequence of Ir catalyzed partial reduction and Cu/GARPHOS catalyzed asymmetric alkynylation with terminal alkynes. The reaction was readily extended to some drug molecules and the transformations of representative products have been demonstrated, thus attesting the practical utilities and the robust nature of the protocol.

Hydrosilylative reduction of primary amides to primary amines catalyzed by a terminal [Ni-OH] complex

A terminal [Ni-OH] complex 1, supported by triflamide-functionalized NHC ligands, catalyzes the hydrosilylative reduction of a range of primary amides into primary amines in good to excellent yields under base-free conditions with key functional group tolerance. Catalyst 1 is also effective for the reduction of a variety of tertiary and secondary amides. In contrast to literature reports, the reactivity of 1 towards amide reduction follows an inverse trend, i.e., 1° amide > 3° amide > 2° amide. The reaction does not follow a usual dehydration pathway.

Merging Electron Transfer with 1,2-Metalate Rearrangement: Deoxygenative Arylation of Aromatic Amides with Arylboronic Esters

Amides are essentially inert carboxyl derivatives in many types of chemical transformations. In particular, deoxygenative C-C bond formation of amides to synthetically important amines is a long-standing challenge for synthetic chemists due to the inertness of the resonance-stabilized amide C=O bond. Herein, it is disclosed that by merging electron-transfer-induced activation with 1,2-metalate rearrangement, a wide range of aromatic amides react smoothly with arylboron reagents, affording a series of biologically relevant diarylmethylamines as deoxygenative C-C bond cross-coupling products. With its simplicity and versatility, this reaction shows great promise in the synthesis of amines from amides, which may open up new avenues in retrosynthetic planning and find widespread use in academia and industry.

Reductive Functionalization of Amides in Synthesis and for Modification of Bioactive Compounds

In this review, applications of the amide reductive functionalization methodology for the synthesis and modification of bioactive compounds are covered. A brief summary of the different protocols is presented in the introduction, followed by the synthetic application of these in late-stage functionalization, leading to known pharmaceuticals or to their derivatives, including bioisosteres, with potential higher activity as the main axis of the article. The synthetic approach to natural products based on amide reduction is also discussed; however, this is given in a condensed form focusing on recent or as yet unexplored applications due to a number of recently published excellent reviews covering this topic. The aim of this review is to illustrate the potential of reductive functionalization of amides as an elegant and useful tool in the synthesis of bioactive compounds and inspire further work in this field.

Homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic reduction of amides and related compounds using molecular hydrogen

Catalytic hydrogenation of amides is of great interest for chemists working in organic synthesis, as the resulting amines are widely featured in natural products, drugs, agrochemicals, dyes, etc. Compared to traditional reduction of amides using (over)stoichiometric reductants, the direct hydrogenation of amides using molecular hydrogen represents a greener approach. Furthermore, amide hydrogenation is a highly versatile transformation, since not only higher amines (obtained by C–O cleavage), but also lower amines and alcohols, or amino alcohols (obtained by C–N cleavage) can be selectively accessed by fine tuning of reaction conditions. This review describes the most recent advances in the area of amide hydrogenation using H₂ exclusively and molecularly defined homogeneous as well as nano-structured heterogeneous catalysts, with a special focus on catalyst development and synthetic applications.

Catalytic hydrogenation of amides is a pivotal chemical transformation for both research labs and chemical production in industry. Here, the authors comprehensively review this topic by including state-of-art homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts that can hydrogenate amides and related compounds.

Hydrosilylation of Carbonyls Catalyzed by Hydridoborenium Borate Salts: Lewis Acid Activation and Anion Mediated Pathways

The electronically unsaturated three-coordinated hydridoborenium cations [LBH]⁺[HB(C₆F₅)₃]^- (1) and [LBH]⁺[B(C₆F₅)₄]^- (2), supported by a bis(phosphinimino)amide ligand, were found to be excellent catalysts for hydrosilylation of a range of aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes and ketones under mild reaction conditions (L = [{(2,4,6-Me₃C₆H₂N)P(Ph₂)}₂N]). The key steps of the catalytic cycle for hydrosilylation of PhCHO were monitored via in situ multinuclear NMR measurements for catalysts 1 and 2. The combined effect of carbonyl activation via the Lewis acidic hydridoborenium cation and the hydridic nature of the borate counteranion in 1 makes it a more efficient catalyst in comparison to that of carbonyl activation via the predominant Lewis acid activation pathway operating with catalyst 2. The catalytic cycle of 1 showed hydride transfer from the borate moiety [HB(C₆F₅)₃]^- to PhCHO in the first step, forming [PhCH₂-O-B(C₆F₅)₃]^-, which subsequently underwent σ-bond metathesis with Et₃SiH to form the product, PhCH₂-O-SiEt₃. Quantum chemical calculations also support the borate anion mediated mechanism with 1. In contrast, the reaction catalyzed by 2 proceeds predominantly via the Lewis acid activation of the carbonyl group involving [LB(H)←OC(H)Ph]⁺[B(C₆F₅)₄]^- as the transition state and [LBOCH₂Ph]⁺[B(C₆F₅)₄]^- as the intermediate.

Special Issue: Coordination Chemistry and Catalysis

Coordination chemistry plays a key role in the design of functionalized materials, organic and template synthesis, biological systems and catalytic processes [...]

Continuous-Flow Amide and Ester Reductions Using Neat Borane Dimethylsulfide Complex

Reductions of amides and esters are of critical importance in synthetic chemistry, and there are numerous protocols for executing these transformations employing traditional batch conditions. Notably, strategies based on flow chemistry, especially for amide reductions, are much less explored. Herein, a simple process was developed in which neat borane dimethylsulfide complex (BH₃ ⋅DMS) was used to reduce various esters and amides under continuous-flow conditions. Taking advantage of the solvent-free nature of the commercially available borane reagent, high substrate concentrations were realized, allowing outstanding productivity and a significant reduction in E-factors. In addition, with carefully optimized short residence times, the corresponding alcohols and amines were obtained in high selectivity and high yields. The synthetic utility of the inexpensive and easily implemented flow protocol was further corroborated by multigram-scale syntheses of pharmaceutically relevant products. Owing to its beneficial features, including low solvent and reducing agent consumption, high selectivity, simplicity, and inherent scalability, the present process demonstrates fewer environmental concerns than most typical batch reductions using metal hydrides as reducing agents.

Efficient Co-Catalyzed Double Hydroboration of Nitriles: Application to One-Pot Conversion of Nitriles to Aldimines

The commercially available and bench-stable Co(acac)₂ /dpephos system is employed as a precatalyst for selective and efficient room temperature hydroboration of organic nitriles with HBPin to produce a series of N,N-diborylamines [RN(BPin)₂ ], which react in situ with aldehydes to give aldimines. Formation of aldimines from N,N-diborylamines does not require a dehydrating agent, is applicable to a wide range of N,N-diborylamine and aldehyde substrates and is highly chemoselective, being unaffected by various common functional groups, such as alkenes, alkynes, secondary amines, ketones, esters, amides, carboxylic acids, pyridines, nitriles, and nitro compounds. The overall transformation represents a synthetically valuable approach to aldimines from nitriles and can be performed in a sequential one-pot manner, tolerating ester, lactone, carboxamide and unactivated alkene functionalities.

Homogeneous cobalt-catalyzed deoxygenative hydrogenation of amides to amines

Herein, the first general and efficient homogeneous cobalt-catalyzed deoxygenative hydrogenation of amides to amines is presented.