Ruthenium‐Catalyzed Modular Synthesis of Cyclic Tertiary Amines from Lactams

Abstract

Reported is the development of a novel catalytic cascade reaction facilitating the modular synthesis of cyclic tertiary amines from simple lactam substrates and secondary alcohols. Using a single molecular ruthenium‐triphos catalyst in the presence of molecular hydrogen enabled the versatile formation of various amines in high yield with excellent selectivity. Extending the reaction system to using an alcohol as the hydrogen transfer reagent allowed the reduction of lactams without the need for molecular hydrogen.

Molecular catalyst systems as key enablers for tailored polyesters and polycarbonate recycling concepts

“…Recently, effective molecular catalysts for the reduction of challenging functionalities could be developed, exemplified by the highly versatile and stable ruthenium complex [Ru(triphos)tmm] [A, triphos = (1,1,1-tri(diphenylphosphinomethyl)ethane, tmm = trimethylenemethane] as privileged system. This important advancement moved this molecular catalyst, and especially recently optimized catalyst structure [Ru(triphos-xyl)tmm] [B, triphos-xyl=1,1,1-tri(bis(3,5-dimethylphenyl) phosphinomethyl)ethane], into the spotlight for novel transformations and in special cases closer to the harsher processing conditions of heterogeneous catalyst systems (20,21). Consequently, the application of these systems in the challenging transformation of robust and stable polymeric materials was envisaged, using molecular hydrogen for the respective hydrogenolysis reaction.…”