Alkylative amination of non-enolizable aldehydes with alkyl (dialkyl-amino)titanium derivatives Preliminary Communication

The readily available tris (diethylamino)methyltitanium and related compounds (see 1 in Scheme 2) react with non-enolizable aldehydes to give tertiary amines 2 ; these amines result from direct replacement of the carbonyl O-atom by an alkyl and an amino group (Scheme 3). A tentative mechanism is proposed, according to which the amino group is transferred to the carbonyl C-atom prior to the alkyl group (Scheme 4).