Alkali Metal–Promoted Facile Synthesis of Secondary Amines from Imines and Carbodiimides

We present here an efficient method for the hydroboration of aldimines (-C=N-) with pinacolborane (HBpin) using an alkali metal catalyst, potassium benzyl. The reaction was accomplished with unprecedented catalytic efficiency under mild and solvent-free conditions to afford the high yield of the corresponding N-boryl amines up to 97%. Various functionalities on aldimines were incorporated for hydroboration. The corresponding boryl amines were subjected to further hydrolysis to yield the corresponding secondary amines with good yields up to 89%. This protocol for the reaction demonstrates an atom-economic and green method with diverse imines that bears excellent functional group tolerance. Chemoselective reduction of imines was also attained, with good yields of 74–89%. We also propose the most plausible mechanism involving the formation of metal hydride as the active pre-catalyst.