Metal-free catalyst for the chemoselective methylation of amines using carbon dioxide as a carbon source

Article abstract of DOI:10.1002/anie.201407689

N-methylation of amines is an important step in the synthesis of many pharmaceuticals and has been widely applied in the preparation of other key intermediates and chemicals. Therefore, the development of efficient methylation methods has attracted considerable attention. In this respect, carbon dioxide is an attractive C₁ building block because it is an abundant, renewable, and nontoxic carbon source. Consequently, we developed a highly chemoselective, metal-free catalytic system that operates under ambient conditions for the N-methylation of amines. The methylation of amines with CO₂ as C₁ source and Ph₂SiH₂ as reducing agent was achieved with an N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) as the catalyst. The catalyst is tolerant toward a variety of functional groups (including esters and ethers, nitro, nitrile, and carbonyl groups, and unsaturated C-C bonds); the reaction uses commercially available reagents and can be performed on a gram scale.