Reductive alkylation secondary amine formation

In the reductive alkylation of ammonia with cyclohexanone, Skita and Keil found that, although cyclohexylamine was obtained in 50% yield over a nickel catalyst, over colloidal platinum dicyclohexylamine was produced as the predominant product even in the presence of an excess molar equivalent of ammonia. Steele and Rylander compared the selectivity to primary amine, secondary amine, and alcohol in the reductive alkylation of ammonia with 2- and 4-methylcyclohexanones over 5% Pd-, 5% Rh-, and 5% Ru-on-carbon as catalysts.18 As seen from the results shown in Table 6.2, the formation of secondary amine is greatly depressed by the methyl group at the 2 position. Thus over Pd-C the secondary amine was formed predominantly with cyclohexanone and 4-methylcyclohexanone while the primary amine was produced in 96% selectivity with 2-methylcyclohexanone. Over Ru-C the alcohol was formed quantitatively with 4-methylcyclohexanone without the formation of any amines, whereas with 2-methylcyclohexanone the alcohol was formed only to an extent of 57%, accompanied by the formation of 4 and 39% of the secondary and primary amines, respectively. These results indicate that secondary amine formation is affected by the steric hindrance of the methyl group to a much greater extents than is the formation of the primary amine or the alcohol. The results with Ru-C and Rh-C also indicate... 

Reductive alkylation of amines proceeds by the hydrogenation of the imine or enamine formed, in situ, by the condensation of the amine with a carbonyl compound. This reaction can give a mixture of products if the amine produced initially competes with the reactant amine in the carbonyl condensation step. The proper selection of reagent concentrations avoids this difficulty and leads to the formation of good yields of the desired product. 50 jhe use of a large excess of ammonia gives the primary amine as the predominant product (Eqn. 19.50). 51 An excess of a primary amine as the reactant leads to the preferential formation of the secondary amine product. An excess of the carbonyl compound gives the symmetrical secondary or tertiary amines (Eqn. 19.51). 50... 

The extent to which secondary and tertiary amines are formed by reductive alkylation is controlled to some degree by the steric bulk of the amine and the carbonyl compound. The more hindered the system, the higher the temperature and hydrogen pressure needed to affect the reaction. While the reductive alkylation of secondary aliphatic amines with formaldehyde takes place under mild conditions (Eqn.l9.52X N,N-dimethylaniline was prepared by reductive alkylation over palladium at 120°C and 15 atmospheres pressure (Eqn. 19.53). 153 54 Reductive alkylation of aniline with acetone over palladium gave a 67% yield of the monoalkylaniline at 100°C and 40 atmospheres pressure but secondary amine formation using the more sterically accessible ketones, 2-tetralone or 2-indanone, took place at room temperature and 4 atmospheres pressure (Eqn. 19.54). 55 Palladium was the preferred catalyst in these reactions since with platinum or rhodium ring hydrogenation was also observed. 54,155... 

Formic acid can also act as a donor of hydrogen. The driving force in this case is the formation of carbon dioxide. A useful application is the Clark-Eschweiler reductive alkylation of amines. Heating a primary or secondary amine with formaldehyde and formic acid results in complete methylation to the tertiary amine. ... 

Primary and secondary amines are usually converted to tertiary amines using formaldehyde and hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst (eqs. 5 and 6). This process, known as reductive alkylation (222), is attractive commercially. The desired amines are produced in high yields and without significant by-product formation. Quatemization by reaction of an appropriate alkylating reagent then follows. 

Aminonitrile formation on 125 with potassium cyanide and piperidine hydrochloride affords the derivative, 135. Hydrolysis as above gives the corresponding amide (136). Debenzylation is accomplished by catalytic reduction. Alkylation of the secondary amine with the side chain (96) used in the preparation of diphenoxylate affords pirintramide (138) This compound, interest-... 

Alkylation lo yield a leriiary amine may occur easily if the formation involves cyclization (ii). Catalysts may have a marked influence. In reductive alkylation of ammonia wilh cyclohexanones, more primary amine was formed over Ru and Rh and more secondary amine over Pd and Pt. Reduction of the ketone to an alcohol is an important side reaction over ruthenium. 

The reductive alkylation of a primary amine with ketone leads to the formation of a stable imine. In the presence of hydrogen and a hydrogenation catalyst, the imine is reduced to a secondary amine. Similarly, a diamine reacts stepwise to form dialkylated secondary amines. However, several side reactions are possible for these reactions as outlined by Greenfield (12). The general scheme depicting the reaction between primary amine or diamine to yield secondary amine through a Schiff base is shown in Figure 17.1. 

Reductive alkylation can also be accomplished by heating carbonyl compounds at 150-250° with 4-5 mol of ammonium formate, formamide, or formates or formamides prepared by heating primary on secondary amines with formic acid at 180-190° (Leuckart reaction) [322]. An excess of85-90% formic acid is frequently used. Formyl derivatives of primary or secondary amines are sometimes obtained as products and have to be hydrolyzed to the corres-... 

Since ketimine formation is not possible in the reductive alkylation of secondary amines, this reaction must involve the hydrogenolysis of an alcoholamine. However, if either carbon a to the starting carbonyl has a hydrogen available, the enamine formation is possible. 

Thus, two major differences between the reductive alkylation of primary and secondary amines are the increased steric hindrance in the latter case, and the fact that tertiary amine formation cannot proceed through a ketimine intermediate. 

The reduction is usually effected catalytically in ethanol solution using hydrogen under pressure in the presence of Raney nickel. As in the reduction of nitriles (Section 5.16.1, p. 771), which also involves the intermediate imine, ammonia or the amines should be present in considerable excess to minimise the occurrence of undesirable side reactions leading to the formation of secondary and tertiary amines. These arise from the further reaction of the carbonyl compound with the initially formed amine product. Selected experimental conditions for these reductive alkylation procedures have been well reviewed.210 Sodium borohydride has also been used as an in situ reducing agent and is particularly effective with mixtures of primary amines and aliphatic aldehydes and ketones.211... 

Even if the imine may not be isolated, the transient species may sometimes be trapped by reaction with a suitable nucleophile. This is the basis of the reductive amination reaction in which an amine is formed from the reaction of ammonia with a carbonyl compound in the presence of a reducing agent such as sodium borohydride or formate. Use of a primary or secondary amine results in the specific formation of secondary or tertiary amines respectively (Fig. 5-45). This synthetic method allows the preparation of high yields of amines, in contrast to the unselective and uncontrollable reaction of alkylating agents with amines. A specific example involving the preparation of a-phenylethylamine from acetophenone is presented in Fig. 5-46. 

In the final example in Scheme 3.3 the starting material is the product of a formal intramolecular Mannich reaction. Accordingly, the C-C bond between the amino and the carboxyl group is particularly weak. Upon hydrogenolysis this bond is cleaved, whereby an imine or aldehyde is presumably formed as an intermediate which leads to the formation of a secondary amine as main product by reductive N-alkylation of 5-aminopentanoic acid. 

To our knowledge, reactions of organometallic compounds with nitroarenes lead, as a rule, to mixtures of reduction and alkylation (or arylation) products.2 11 Only few examples have been described where the reactions proceed with the formation of N, /V-disubstituted hydroxylamine and/or secondary amines.4-6-9... 

Secondary amines are prepared by several procedures of reductive alkylation. A procedure similar to that described for primary amines may be employed the ratio of reactants must be changed to at least two moles of the carbonyl compound to one of ammonia. The procedure leads to symmetrical secondary amines and is most successful starting with aromatic aldehydes, as in the formation of dibenzylamine (67%). ... 

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