Amine-aldehyde heterogeneous reactions

When an aldehyde or a ketone is treated with ammonia or a primary or secondary amine in the presence of hydrogen and a hydrogenation catalyst (heterogeneous or homogeneous), reductive alkylation of ammonia or the amine (or reductive amination of the carbonyl compound) takes place.165 The reaction can formally be regarded as occurring in the following manner (shown for a primary amine), which probably does correspond to the actual sequence of steps 166... 

Base catalysis is one of the less-well developed areas of heterogeneous catalysis. We have developed novel bases derived from amines via the one-step process outlined above. A range of supported amines have been prepared and evaluated in a series of reactions We have also investigated the nature of the amine groups attached to the surface in comparison with those formed by grafting onto pre-formed silica. While many workers have studied the use of basic catalysts for the Knoevenagel condensation of aldehydes, with three articles on the use of MCM derivatives[ 12], little has been done on the more demanding condensation of ketones. 

Hydrogenation of a mixture of amines and aldehydes or ketones results in the formation of unsymme-trical secondary amines. The hydrogenation of the intermediate aldimine or ketimine can be carried out by heterogeneous catalytic hydrogenation over metal catalysts such as platinum, palladium, nickel or Raney nickel. The overall reaction can be regarded as an alkylation of the amino compounds, and also as a reductive amination of the aldehyde or ketone (Scheme 3). 

Amorphous SA treated with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (tertiary amine) and 3-(diethylamino) propyltrimethoxysilane (primary amine) acts as a heterogeneous catalyst for the one-pot synthesis of 1,3-dinitroalkanes from aldehydes and nitromethane (Scheme 6.21) [133]. Trifunctionality of the catalyst surface has been proposed. Aldehydes are activated by surface acid sites and they react with secondary amino group to form imine intermediates. The proton of nitromethane is abstracted by a tertiary amine group accompanied by nucleophilic attack of the deprotonated nitromethane on the imine, which is also assisted by a surface acid site, resulting in nitroalkenes. Another nitromethane is activated by the tertiary amine group, and the Michael reaction with nitroalkenes occurs to give the 1,3-dinitroalkanes. 

The hydrogenation of functionalities in the carboxylic acid oxidation state can also be useful for small- or large-scale syntheses. For example, the hydrogenation of adiponitrile generates hexamethylenediamine that is one of the two monomers in the production of nylon. This reaction is conducted with a heterogeneous catalyst, but homogeneous catalysts for the reduction of nitriles to amines would be convenient for the conversion of nitriles to amines on a laboratory scale. The hydrogenation of esters to aldehydes would... 

The synthesis of 1,4-dihydropyridines (45) by four-component condensation reaction of 1,3-dicarbonyls (43), aldehydes (1), and ammonium carbonate (44) in an aqueous medium was reported at 60°C within 1.5-2.5 h (Scheme 9.11) (Tamaddon and Moradi 2012). ZnO nanoparticles can be used as a heterogeneous catalyst (Yavari and Beheshti 2011) for the one-pot three-component condensation of isatoic anhydride (46), amines (47), and aldehydes (48) to afford the corresponding 2,3-disubstituted quinazolin-4(l//)-ones (49) (Scheme 9.12). A short reaction time (3 h), solvent-free conditions, and an atom-economic nature are the significant advantages of the present method. The catalyst showed good recyclability without much loss of its catalytic activity. 

Gold derivatives have also been found to facilitate the Mannich reaction.Thus, the heterogeneous catalyst, gold supported on nanocrystalline Ce02 or Zr02, was found to accelerate the reaction of aldehyde 26, amine 54, and acetylide 55 to produce 56, with a turn-over number (TON) 50-fold greater than the homogeneous variation. 

Strecker reaction A robust heterogeneous self-supported chiral titanium cluster (SCTC) catalyst applied both in batch and continuous mode [44] enabled imine cyanation as well as a three-component Strecker reaction using the corresponding aldehydes and amines under continuous flow conditions in a PBR giving aminonitriles enantiomeric excess values of up to 98%. 

As an extension of this work, the same authors have used polystyrene-supported proline as a recyclable catalyst in the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction of a range of aryl aldehydes with methyl or ethyl vinyl ketone. These reactions were performed in the presence of imidazole and provided a series of Morita-Baylis-Hillman adducts in moderate to high yields (17 88%) combined with high enantioselectivities of up to 95% ee (Scheme 2.55). This study represented the first example of supported proline as heterogeneous catalyst for the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction. In addition, Zhou et al. reported that these reactions could be eatalysed by combinations of L-proline with chiral tertiary amines derived from various readily available chiral sources, such as L-proline or (5)-a-phenylethylamine. In these conditions, the Morita-Baylis-Hillman adducts were obtained in reasonable chemical yields (34-97%) and low to good enantioselectivities (12 83% ee). In this study, it was demonstrated that the proline stereochemistry was the sole factor to determine the eonfiguration of the newly formed chiral centre. 

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