Base‐Catalyzed Decarboxylative Amination of In‐Situ Generated Ortho‐Quinone Methides: Synthesis of Benzyl Amines

Abstract

In this paper, a direct access to benzylic amines from in‐situ generated ortho‐quinone methides (o‐QMs) and isocya‐nate/isothiocyanate via decarboxylation is described. This base‐catalyzed methodology has high functional group tolerance and shows a wide range of substrate scopes, where H2O as a nucleophile for isocyanate/isothiocyanate for product formation. The products are insensitive to air and moisture, which makes this synthetic strategy more efficient for the construction of various benzyl amine derivatives.