Amines Leuckart-Wallach alkylation

The previous sections have dealt with stable C=N-I- functionality in aromatic rings as simple salts. Another class of iminium salt reactions can be found where the iminium salt is only an intermediate. The purpose of this section is to point out these reactions even though they do not show any striking differences in their reactivity from stable iminium salts. Such intermediates arise from a-chloroamines (133-135), isomerization of oxazolidines (136), reduction of a-aminoketones by the Clemmensen method (137-139), reductive alkylation by the Leuckart-Wallach (140-141) or Clarke-Eschweiler reaction (142), mercuric acetate oxidation of amines (46,93), and in reactions such as ketene with enamines (143). 

By application of the Leuckart-Wallach reaction,amines 2 can be alkylated with a carbonyl compound 1 formic acid is used as reductive agent, and is in turn oxidized to give carbon dioxide. 

The electrophilic character of sulfur dioxide does not only enable addition to reactive nucleophiles, but also to electrons forming sulfur dioxide radical anions which possess the requirements of a captodative" stabilization (equation 83). This electron transfer occurs electrochemically or chemically under Leuckart-Wallach conditions (formic acid/tertiary amine - , by reduction of sulfur dioxide with l-benzyl-1,4-dihydronicotinamide or with Rongalite The radical anion behaves as an efficient nucleophile and affords the generation of sulfones with alkyl halides " and Michael-acceptor olefins (equations 84 and 85). 

The reductive alkylation of amines is called the Leuckart-Wallach reaction [112-115]. The primary or secondary amine reacts with the ketone or aldehyde. The formed imine is then reduced with formic acid as hydrogen donor (Scheme 20.27). When amines are reductively methylated with formaldehyde and formic acid, the process is termed the Eschweiler-Clarke procedure [116, 117]. 

The Wallach-Leuckart reductive alkylation of ammonia, and primary and secondary amines, by means of aldehydes and ketones, and the methylation of secondary amines according to Clarke and Eschweiler,3160 all possess a reduction step which is very similar to that observed in the reduction of enamines.317... 

Leuckart-Wallach reaction. Reductive alkylation of ammonia or of primary or secondary amines with carbonyl compounds and formic acid or formamides as reducing agents. 

The Leuckart-Wallach reaction992 consists of the reductive alkylation of ammonia or an amine by a carbonyl compound with formic acid or a derivative thereof as reducing agent ... 

Among monoamines, both enantiomers of 1-phenylethylamine and their derivatives play a prominent role. They are commercially available, but can also be prepared by resolution of the racemate, obtainable by Leuckart- Wallach reaction of acetophenone1, with malic acid2 or, more conveniently, with tartaric acid in methanol3. They are used as chiral additives for the addition of zinc alkyls to aldehydes in Section D. 1.3.1.4., as copper complexes for the synthesis of biaryls in Section B.2., as lithium salts for enantioselective deprotonation in Section C., and as imines in Sections D.1.1.1.3.1., D.1.1.1,4.. D.1.4.4., D.1.5.2., D.1.5.8., D. 1.6.1.2.1., D.2.3.I., and D.8. A general procedure for the synthesis of imines from carbonyl compounds and primary amines, with many examples of both chiral carbonyl compounds and chiral amines is given in reference 4. 

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