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Updated: Jul 21, 2025

One-pot Microwave-assisted Conversion of Anomeric Nitrate-esters to Trichloroacetimidates
Published on: January 15, 2018
Ammonolytic transfer dehydrogenation of amines and amides: a versatile method to valorize nitrogen compounds to
Robin Coeck1, Margot Houbrechts1, Dirk E De Vos1
1Centre for Membrane Separations, Adsorption, Catalysis and Spectroscopy for Sustainable Solutions (cMACS), KU Leuven 3001 Leuven Belgium dirk.devos@kuleuven.be.
Abstract:
The dehydrogenation of amines has been identified as an efficient method for nitrile synthesis. At present, this approach is restricted to (oxidative) dehydrogenations of primary amines, most often with specialized homogeneous catalysts. In this work, amines were transfer dehydrogenated to nitriles using simple and cheap alkenes (e.g. ethylene or propene) as hydrogen scavengers. The scope was expanded to secondary amines, tertiary amines and even aldehydes. Additional nitrogen is built in from NH3. The versatility of the process was proven by coupling it to the ammonolysis of secondary amides. This enabled us to recycle long-chain polyamides (LCPA) into monomeric compounds, i.e. α,ω-amidonitriles and dinitriles. Reactions were performed with a recyclable heterogeneous Pt catalyst, at 200 °C and with limited addition of NH3 and ethylene. High yields of up to 94% were obtained for the corresponding nitriles.
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