Solvent and temperature effects on the reduction and amination reactions of electrophiles by lithium dialkylaminoborohydrides

The influence of temperature and solvent effects on the reduction and amination mechanisms of iodomethane by lithium N,N-diisopropylaminoborohydride (iPr-LAB) was examined in varying concentrations of THF and dioxane. The reactions of benzyl chloride and trimethylsilyl chloride with iPr-LAB in THF were also studied. The amination of iodomethane is favored over reduction at low and room temperatures in pure THF and with increasing the amount of dioxane in THF. At higher temperatures, the reduction reaction appears to compete with the amination. In dioxane solvent, however, iodomethane yields exclusively the amination product regardless of temperature. On the other hand, reduction by iPr-LAB to the aminoborane is the only product observed in THF when benzyl chloride and trimethylsilyl chloride are used. To understand the solvent effects on the product distribution, ab initio and density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to examine the mechanisms of reduction and amination of chloromethane and bromomethane by lithium dimethylaminoborohydride (LAB) in THF and dioxane. The results of these calculations show that the relative reaction barrier heights are significantly affected by the nature of the coordinated solvent molecule and thus lend support to the experimental observations.     

Aminoborohydrides 15. The first mild and efficient method for generating 2-(dialkylamino)-pyridines from 2-fluoropyridine

[reaction: see text] Lithium aminoborohydride (LAB) reagents promote the amination of 2-fluoropyridine under mild reaction conditions, providing 2-(dialkylamino)pyridines in excellent yield and purity. Treatment of 2-fluoropyridine with 1.1 equiv of lithium aminoborohydride at room temperature affords complete conversion after 1 h. This is the first general way by which 2-(dialkylamino)pyridines may be directly obtained from fluoropyridines under ambient reaction conditions. 2-Chloropyridine can also be converted to 2-(dialkylamino)pyridine by simply increasing the number of LAB equivalents and the reaction temperature.     

Solvent effects on the aggregation state of lithium dialkylaminoborohydrides

DFT calculations were performed to determine the effects of ethereal solvents on the aggregation state of lithium dialkylaminoborohydrides (LABs). The calculations included dimerization energies in the gas phase, with continuum solvation only, microsolvation with coordinating ethereal ligands, and a combination of the microsolvation and continuum models. The continuum model alone overestimates the stability of the dimers, apparently due to the lack of steric effects from the coordinating ethereal ligands. The use of the combined microsolvation and continuum solvation models predicts lithium dimethylaminoborohydride to be a mixture of monomer and dimer in THF, and more sterically hindered lithium aminoborohydrides to exist primarily as monomers. The kinetics of amination of 1-chlorodecane by lithium dimethylaminoborohydride showed no detectable change in reaction rate with time, suggesting that the LAB reagent may exist primarily as a monomer in THF.     

Computational strategies for evaluating barrier heights for gas-phase reactions of lithium enolates

Gas-phase activation energies were calculated for three lithium enolate reactions by using several different ab initio and density functional theory (DFT) methods to determine which levels of theory generate acceptable results. The reactions included an aldol-type addition of an enolate to an aldehyde, a proton transfer from an alcohol to a lithium enolate, and an S(N)2 reaction of an enolate with chloromethane. For each reaction, the calculations were performed for both the monomeric and dimeric forms of the lithium enolate. It was found that transition state geometry optimization with B3LYP followed by single point MP2 calculations generally provided acceptable results compared to higher level ab initio methods.     

Direct reductive amination of aldehydes using lithium-arene(cat.) as reducing system. A simple one-pot procedure for the synthesis of secondary amines

A simple one-pot procedure for the direct reductive amination of aldehydes using lithium powder and a catalytic amount of 4,4′-di-tert-butylbiphenyl (DTBB) or a polymer supported naphthalene as reducing system is described. The direct reductive amination of a variety of aldehydes with primary amines was achieved simply by adding a mixture of the corresponding carbonyl compound and the amine, over a solution of the lithium arenide in THF at room temperature. For most of the substrates tested the main reaction products were the secondary amines along with variable amounts of the corresponding alcohol and/or imine products. Theoretical DFT calculations have been applied in order to explain the differences in reactivity observed for aromatic substrates.     

Aminoborohydrides. 11. Facile reduction of N-alkyl lactams to the corresponding amines using lithium aminoborohydrides

[reaction: see text] Various five- and six-membered N-alkyl lactams were reduced to the corresponding cyclic amines using lithium N,N-dialkylaminoborohydrides (LAB). Most of the reductions were essentially complete after refluxing in THF for 2 h. The cyclic amine products were easily isolated after an aqueous workup in very good to excellent yields. It is possible to selectively reduce most functional groups, such as esters, in the presence of a lactam using LAB reagents.     

Surface amination of poly(acrylonitrile)

The surface amination of poly (acrylonitrile) by ammonia plasma treatment has been studied. Furthermore, two other surface modification techniques have been investigated, the plasma chemical decomposition of an amino group containing chemical (tris-(2-aminoethyl)amine) onto the polymer surface and the surface reduction by lithium aluminium hydride. The three different methods are compared with respect to the adhesion improvement of the coatings onto the modified surfaces.The number of groups introduced on the surfaces has been determined by a wet chemical method.     

Reaction of InCl3 with various reducing agents: InCl3-NaBH4-mediated reduction of aromatic and aliphatic nitriles to primary amines

While alternative methods of preparing dichloroindium hydride (HInCl(2)) via the in situ reduction of InCl(3) using lithium amino borohydride (LAB) were explored, generation of HInCl(2) from the reduction of InCl(3) by sodium borohydride (NaBH(4)) was also re-evaluated for comparison. The reductive capability of the InCl(3)/NaBH(4) system was found to be highly dependent on the solvent used. Investigation by (11)B NMR spectroscopic analyses indicated that the reaction of InCl(3) with NaBH(4) in THF generates HInCl(2) along with borane-tetrahydrofuran (BH(3)·THF) in situ. Nitriles underwent reduction to primary amines under optimized conditions at 25 °C using 1 equiv of anhydrous InCl(3) with 3 equiv of NaBH(4) in THF. A variety of aromatic, heteroaromatic, and aliphatic nitriles were reduced to their corresponding primary amine in 70-99% isolated yields. Alkyl halide and nitrile functional groups were reduced in tandem by utilizing the reductive capabilities of both HInCl(2) and BH(3)·THF in a one-pot reaction. Finally, the selective reduction of the carbon bromine bond in the presence of nitriles was achieved by generating HInCl(2) via the reduction InCl(3) with NaBH(4) in CH(3)CN or with lithium dimethylaminoborohydride (MeLAB) in THF.     

Samarium diiodide-promoted electrophilic amination of ketone enolates: efficient synthesis of quaternary carbon-containing α-aminated ketones

An efficient and practical electrophilic amination method that allows the preparation of useful quaternary carbon-containing α-aminoketones was developed. The reaction proceeds regiospecifically via a samarium enolate intermediate at room temperature in the presence of mild reducing agent SmI₂. Unlike the most reported lithium enolate cases, this new amination method does not require the use of strong base such as BuLi or LDA.     

Reductive Amination of Aldehydes and Ketones with Primary Amines by Using Lithium Amidoborane as Reducing Reagent

A variety of secondary amines were obtained in high isolated yields in the reductive amination of aldehydes and ketones by using lithium amidoborane as reducing agent. Compared to ammonia borane, lithium amidoborane has higher reducibility, and thus, exhibits faster reaction rate.     

Chiral ligand-controlled asymmetric conjugate amination of enoates with lithium mesitylmethyl(trimethylsilyl)amide

Lithium mesitylmethyl(trimethylsilyl)amide behaved as a nice amination agent in a chiral ligand-controlled conjugate addition reaction of tert-butyl cinnamate to give the conjugate amination product with 99% ee in 90% yield. Other acyclic and cyclic enoates were also aminated in reasonably high enantioselectivity, while the deprotonation of abstractable proton of enoates caused yield loss of the conjugate amination products, due to the bulkiness and enriched basicity of the lithium amide. Although such steric bulkiness made hard the hydrogenolytic cleavage of a mesitylmethyl-N bond of the adducts, a new protocol comprising N-chlorination-regioselective dehydrochlorination-transoximation was developed for N-dearylmethylation, giving 3-aminoalkanoates in reasonably good yields.     

Nickel-on-charcoal-catalyzed aromatic aminations and Kumada couplings: mechanistic and synthetic aspects

Protocols for aromatic aminations and Kumada couplings catalyzed by 'heterogeneous' nickel-on-charcoal (Ni/C) have been revised, making them simpler and more time efficient. For both types of reactions, reduction of the catalyst precursor Ni(II)/C using n-BuLi prior to addition of a substrate can be avoided. Instead, in amination reactions, the amine in combination with lithium tert-butoxide was found to convert Ni(II)/C to active Ni(0). For Kumada couplings, direct reduction of Ni(II)/C by the Grignard reagent is easily achieved. Reactions run in the presence of triarylphosphine ligands of varying substitution patterns and with differing electronic properties provided insight into the mechanism of these nickel-catalyzed transformations. Ligandless Kumada couplings were facile with aryl Grignards, which may be a consequence of pi-complexation of nickel by the aryl group in the reagent. Larger scale reactions of both types of couplings have been successfully performed, suggesting that Ni/C-based processes can be scaled-up as needed.     

Synthesis of aminopyridines from 2-fluoropyridine and lithium amides

Lithium amides promote the amination of 2-fluoropyridine under mild reaction conditions, providing 2-aminopyridines in good yields and purity. Treatment of 2-fluoropyridine with 1 equiv of lithium amide at room temperature affords complete conversion after 2 h. To our knowledge, this is the first study of lithium amide-promoted amination of fluoropyridines that are not further activated by electron-withdrawing groups.     

Aminoborohydrides. 12. Novel tandem S(N)Ar amination-reduction reactions of 2-halobenzonitriles with lithium N,N-dialkylaminoborohydrides

A novel tandem amination-reduction reaction has been developed in which 2-(N,N-dialkylamino)benzylamines are generated from 2-halobenzonitriles and lithium N,N-dialkylaminoborohydride (LAB) reagents. These reactions are believed to occur through a tandem S(N)Ar amination-reduction mechanism wherein the LAB reagent promotes halide displacement by the N,N-dialkylamino group, and the nitrile is subsequently reduced. This one-pot procedure is complimentary to existing synthetic methods and is an attractive synthetic tool for the nucleophilic aromatic substitution of halobenzenes with less nucleophilic amines. The (N,N-dialkylamino)benzylamine products of this reaction are easily isolated after a simple aqueous workup procedure in very good to excellent yields.     

Direct arylation of benzene with aryl bromides using high-temperature/high-pressure process windows: expanding the scope of C-H activation chemistry

A detailed investigation on the direct arylation of benzene with aryl bromides by using first-row transition metals under high-temperature/high-pressure (high-T/p) conditions is described. By employing a parallel reactor platform for rapid reaction screening and discovery at elevated temperatures, various metal/ligand/base combinations were evaluated for their ability to enable biaryl formation through C-H activation. The combination of cobalt(III) acetylacetonate and lithium bis(trimethylsilyl)amide was subjected to further process intensification at 200?°C (15?bar), allowing a significant reduction of the catalyst/base loading and a dramatic increase in catalytic efficiency (turnover frequency) by a factor of 1000 compared to traditional protocols. The high-throughput screening additionally identified novel nickel- and copper-based metal/ligand combinations that favored an amination pathway competing with C-H activation, with the addition of ligands, such as 1,10-phenanthroline, having a profound influence on the selectivity. In addition to metal-based catalysts, high-T/p process windows were also successfully applied to transition-metal-free systems, utilizing 1,10-phenanthroline as organocatalyst.     

Lithium borohydride: a reagent of choice for the selective reductive amination of cyclohexanones

Traditional reductive amination of substituted cyclohexanones are either selective toward the formation of cis-products or show low selectivity. Herein we report a selective procedure for the reductive amination of substituted cyclohexanones with primary amines using lithium borohydride that is selective toward formation of trans-products.     

Nucleophilic Amination of Methoxy Arenes Promoted by a Sodium Hydride/Iodide Composite

A method for the nucleophilic amination of methoxy arenes was established by using sodium hydride (NaH) in the presence of lithium iodide (LiI). This method offers an efficient route to benzannulated nitrogen heterocycles. Mechanistic studies showed that the reaction proceeds through an unusual concerted nucleophilic aromatic substitution.     

Chemical modification of fumagillin. II. 6-Amino-6-deoxyfumagillol and its derivatives.

6-Amino-6-deoxyfumagillol (5) was synthesized by reductive amination of 6-oxo-6-deoxyfumagillol (4), which was obtained by oxidation of fumagillol (2). The reduction proceeded stereoselectively by the equatorial attack of hydride and 5 was found to have the same stereochemistry as that of 2. Several derivatives of 5 were prepared and most of them showed anti-angiogenic activity comparable to that of fumagillol derivatives.     

Synthesis of 3-(2-Aminoethyl)pyrrole Derivatives

3-(2-Di-n-propylaminoethyl)pyrrole (1a) was prepared in good yield by reduction of pyrrole-3-(N,N-di-n-propylglyoxamide) (9) with lithium aluminum hydride. 3-(2-Di-n-propylaminoethyl)-5-acetylpyrrole (1b) was prepared by first acetylation of 1-p-toluenesulfonyl-3-(2-di-n-propylaminoethyl)pyrrole (6) followed by hydrolysis of the p-toluenesulfonyl substituent. The starting material 6 was prepared by homologation of 1-(p-toluenesulfonyl)pyrrole-3-carboxaldehyde (3) to the corresponding acetaldehyde followed by reductive amination of the latter.     

Novel diborane-analogue transition structures for borane reactions with alkyl halides

Ab initio and DFT calculations were performed to examine the mechanisms of reduction of alkyl halides and formaldehyde by borane. With alkyl halides, the optimized transition structure geometry resembled diborane, with a pair of hydrogen atoms bridging the boron and carbon atoms by three-center-two-electron bonds. A similar transition structure was found for the reduction of formaldehyde, although it was not the lowest-energy transition structure. Solvation by dimethyl ether or dimethyl sulfide disrupted this bridging with chloromethane, while both ligands dissociated from borane during the reduction of formaldehyde. The high calculated activation free energies of alkyl halide reduction are consistent with their observed lack of reactivity with borane.