Direct amide synthesis from either alcohols or aldehydes with amines: activity of Ru(II) hydride and Ru(0) complexes

Senthilkumar Muthaiah1, Subhash Chandra Ghosh, Joo-Eun Jee

  • 1Division of Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 637371, Singapore.

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Direct alkylation of ammonia produces polyalkylated amines, along with a quaternary ammonium salt. To exclusively prepare primary amines, the azide synthesis method can be used.
Azide ions act as good nucleophiles and react with unhindered alkyl halides to form alkyl azides. Alkyl azides do not participate in further nucleophilic substitution reactions, thereby eliminating the chances of polyalkylated products. Alkyl azides are reduced by hydride-based reducing agents, like lithium aluminum...
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Direct alkylation is not a suitable method for synthesizing amines because it produces polyalkylated products. Gabriel synthesis is the most preferred method to exclusively make primary amines. The method uses phthalimide, which contains a protected form of nitrogen that participates in alkylation only once to predominantly give primary amines.
Strong bases like NaOH or KOH deprotonate the phthalimide to form the corresponding anion, which acts as a nucleophile. Further, the anion attacks an...
Amides to Amines: LiAlH4 Reduction01:20

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Nitriles are reduced to amines in the presence of strong reducing agents like lithium aluminum hydride through a typical nucleophilic acyl substitution. The reaction requires two equivalents of the reducing agent. The reducing agent acts as a source of hydride ions.
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