Amidation of unfunctionalized hydrocarbons catalyzed by ruthenium cyclic amine or bipyridine complexes

Selective amidation of simple hydrocarbons with pre-isolated and in-situ formed iminoiodanes catalyzed by ruthenium complexes Ru(III)(Me(3)tacn)(CF(3)CO(2))(3).H(2)O] (2b, Me(3)tacn = N,N', N"-trimethyl-1,4,7-triazacyclononane) and cis-Ru(II)(6, 6'-Cl(2)bpy)(2)Cl(2)] (3, 6,6'-Cl(2)bpy = 6,6'-dichloro-2, 2'-bipyridine) was investigated. With PhI=NTs as nitrogen source, both catalysts efficiently promote the amidation of adamantane, cyclohexene, ethylbenzene, cumene, indan, tetralin, and diphenylmethane to afford N-substituted sulfonamides in 80-93% yields with high selectivity. Competitive amidations of para-substituted ethylbenzenes and kinetic isotope effect for the amidation of cyclohexene/cyclohexene-d(10) suggest that the amidation processes probably proceed via the hydrogen abstraction by a reactive Ru=NTs species to form a carboradical intermediate. The amidation with PhI(OAc)(2)/TsNH(2) gave results comparable to those obtained with PhI=NTs. Extension of the "PhI(OAc)(2)/TsNH(2) + catalyst 2b or 3" protocol to MeSO(2)NH(2) and PhCONH(2) with ethylbenzene as substrate produced the corresponding N-substituted amides in up to 89% yield.