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Updated: Oct 31, 2025

Syntheses, Crystallization, and Spectroscopic Characterization of 3,5-Lutidine N-Oxide Dehydrate
Published on: April 24, 2018
UV-Light-Induced N-Acylation of Amines with α-Diketones
Zhihui Xu1, Tianbao Yang1, Niu Tang1
1State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Herein, we develop a mild method for N-acylation of primary and secondary amines with α-diketones induced by ultraviolet (UV) light. Forty-six examples with various functional groups are explored at room temperature with irradiation by three 26 W UV lamps (350-380 nm). The yield reaches 97%. The gram scale experiment product yield is 76%. Moreover, this system can be applied to the synthesis of several amino acid derivatives. Mechanistic studies show that benzoin is generated in situ from benzil under UV irradiation.
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