A Facile One-Pot Process for the Formation of Hindered Tertiary Amines

Abstract

A simple and convenient method was developed for the preparation of hindered tertiary amines via direct reductive amination of ketones with secondary aryl amines, using trichlorosilane as reducing agent and tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) as organic Lewis base activator. A broad range of ketones were reacted with <em>N</em>-methylaniline to afford the corresponding tertiary amine products in high yield. An open transition model was proposed for the reductive step.

Keywords

• reductive amination
• tertiary amine
• Lewis base
• trichlorosilane
• ketone