Heterogeneous bimetallic Pt-Sn/γ-Al2O3 catalyzed direct synthesis of diamines from N-alkylation of amines with diols through a borrowing hydrogen strategy

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/j.tetlet.2011.10.100

Direct synthesis of diamines has been efficiently realized from the N-alkylation of amines with diols by means of heterogeneous bimetallic Pt-Sn/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst (0.5 wt % Pt, molar ratio Pt:Sn = 1:3) through a 'Borrowing Hydrogen' strategy under ligand-free conditions. The present methodology provides an environmentally benign route to diamines.

Full text of DOI:10.1016/j.tetlet.2011.10.100

Tetrahedron Letters 52 (2011) 7103–7107
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Tetrahedron Letters
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tetlet
Heterogeneous bimetallic Pt–Sn/
c-Al2O3 catalyzed direct synthesis
of diamines from N-alkylation of amines with diols through a borrowing
hydrogen strategy
⇑
Liandi Wang, Wei He, Kaikai Wu, Songbo He, Chenglin Sun, Zhengkun Yu
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian, Liaoning 116023, China
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Direct synthesis of diamines has been efficiently realized from the N-alkylation of amines with diols by
Received 17 August 2011
Revised 30 September 2011
Accepted 18 October 2011
Available online 21 October 2011
means of heterogeneous bimetallic Pt–Sn/c-Al2O3 catalyst (0.5 wt % Pt, molar ratio Pt:Sn = 1:3) through a
‘Borrowing Hydrogen’ strategy under ligand-free conditions. The present methodology provides an envi-
ronmentally benign route to diamines.
Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Amines are a class of important organic compounds and are
extensively utilized in organic synthesis and chemical industry.1
Amination using primary amines and organic halides has been ap-
plied as the major method to prepare secondary and tertiary
amines, but this method often arouses environmental problems
with low selectivity for the desired products. Reductive amination
of aldehydes or ketones with amines by using high pressure hydro-
gen as reductant is another way for this purpose. Recently, transi-
tion metal complex-catalyzed direct N-alkylation of amines2–4 and
ammonia5 with alcohols has been reported as an alternative to
amines through a ‘Borrowing Hydrogen’ (BH) strategy.2 Through
such a process, new amines,2–5 imines,6 and amides7 can be pro-
duced, and deaminative N-alkylation between two amines may
also occur.8 Transition metal complex-catalyzed N-alkylation of
amines with long-chain diols was occasionally reported.3d,7b How-
ever, only very limited work has been directed toward supported
catalysts in this area.9 Very recently, in the search for a readily
available, applicable, and highly active catalyst for a BH process,
R
R
OH
R
R
NHR'
NR'
R
NH
R
R
NHR'
NR'
2
[PtSn]
[PtSn]
[PtSn]H
[PtSn]H
x
x
H NR'
2
H NR'
2
R
O
NH
H O
NH
2
3
Scheme 1. Pt–Sn/c-Al2O3 catalyzed direct N-alkylation of amines with alcohols and
amines through a BH strategy.10
The reaction of ethylene glycol (1a) with aniline (2a) in a 1:2
molar ratio was initially conducted at 145 °C in a 15-mL sealed
glass tube reactor with Pt–Sn/c-Al2O3 as catalyst (200 mg,
0.5 mol % Pt) and o-xylene as solvent under a nitrogen atmosphere.
Over a period of 24 h, the corresponding product diamine 3a was
isolated in 20% yield (Table 1, entry 1), suggesting potential appli-
cation of the present heterogeneous catalyst in N-alkylation of
amines by diols.15 Thus, short to long-chain diols were investigated
in the direct N-alkylation of aniline 2a (Table 1).16 With 1,3-pro-
panediol (1b) as the alcohol, the desired product 3b was only col-
lected in a 11% yield and N-propylaniline (4), the result of
monoamination, dehydration, and reduction17 was obtained in a
28% yield (entry 2). Inter- and intramolecular N-alkylation of 2a
with diols 1,4-butanediol (1c) and 1,5-pentanediol (1d) occurred
to form cyclic tertiary amines 5a and 5b in 66–76% yields (entries
3 and 4), respectively. As the carbon-chain was extended to 1,6-
hexanediol (1e), the reaction of 1e and 2a afforded both the dia-
mine product 3c (21%) and cyclic tertiary amine 5c (71%) (entry
5), revealing a remarkable effect of the carbon-chain of a diol (en-
tries 1–5). Further extending the carbon-chain of a diol substrate,
for example, from C7 to C12, led to the desired diamine products
3d–h in excellent yields (87–94%, entries 6–10). The reaction of
we found that a heterogeneous bimetallic Pt–Sn/c-Al2O3 catalyst
can be applied for the efficient direct synthesis of secondary and
tertiary amines and imines from the reactions of amines with alco-
hols or between amines.10 Pt–Sn/
c-Al2O3 has been known as the
catalyst for alkane dehydrogenation,11 reforming processes,12 and
hydrogenation13 in petroleum industry. Pt@TiO2 can promote
photoirradiation of o-arylenediamines in very dilute alcohol solu-
tion.4e Primary amines interacted with methanol over
c-Al2O3 in
the gas phase at >200 °C, yielding an amine mixture.14 Herein,
we report direct synthesis of diamines from the reactions of
amines with middle to long-chain diols by using a Pt–Sn/c-Al2O3
catalyst (0.5 wt % Pt, molar ratio Pt:Sn = 1:3) for the first time
(Scheme 1).
⇑
Corresponding author. Tel./fax: +86 411 8437 9227.
E-mail address: zkyu@dicp.ac.cn (Z. Yu).
0040-4039/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tetlet.2011.10.100

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L.D. Wang et al. / Tetrahedron Letters 52 (2011) 7103–7107
Table 1
investigated to probe into the protocol generality (Table 2).
Methyl-substituted anilines 2b–e efficiently reacted with 1g to af-
ford the desired products, that is, diamines 3n–q in 87–91% yields
(Table 2, entries 1–4), while the corresponding chloro-substituted
anilines 2f–i reacted less efficiently to form diamines 3r–u in
low yields (7–20%) with monoamination products 3r0–u0 (55–
61%) as the major products (entries 5–8), suggesting an obvious
electronic effect of the substituents from amines 2. However, the
reaction of 4-fluoroaniline (2j) gave diamine 3v in a good yield
(79%, entry 9). Naphthylamine (2k) was also efficiently alkylated
by 1g (entry 10). The reaction of 3-aminopyridine (2l) gave the
mono- and diamination products in 47% and 24% yields, respec-
tively, while 2-aminopyridine did not undergo the same reaction
(entry 11). N-Alkylation of secondary amine N-methylaniline
(2m) formed the monoamination product 3y0 (55%) as the major
product with the desired diamine 3y (17%) as the minor product,
revealing a steric/electronic effect from the amine substrate (entry
12). Aliphatic long-chain primary amine, for example, 1-hexyl-
amine (2n), made the reaction complicated, while benzylamine
(2o) underwent deaminative self-coupling to afford dibenzylamine
6 (54%) which reacted less efficiently with 1g to give the desired
product 3z (18%) (entries 13–15). Cyclic secondary amine piperi-
dine (2p) behaved more efficiently than 6 to afford both the de-
sired and monoamination products 3z1 (31%) and 3z10 (40%),
whereas the reaction of morpholine (2q) produced the desired
product 3z2 in an 84% yield, suggesting that the ether oxygen atom
obviously increases the reactivity of amine 2q (entries 16 and 17).
In order to explore the double N-alkylation of a diamine
Direct synthesis of diamines (3) from the reactions of diols (1) and aniline (2a)a
Pt-Sn/γ-Al O
2
3
+ 2 PhNH
(1)
HO
OH
PhHN
NHPh
n
2
n
-H O
2
1
2a
3
Entry
1
Diol (1)
Productb (%)
OH
NHPh
NHPh
HO
1a
OH
PhHN
3a (18)
3b (11)
2
HO
1b
PhHN
Me
PhHN
4 (28)
5a (66)
OH
OH
Ph
Ph
N
N
2
3
3
4
5
HO
HO
1c
1d
5b (76)
OH
NHPh
4
4
HO
PhHN
Ph
1e
3c (21)
N
5c (71)
OH
OH
OH
OH
OH
NHPh
5
6
7
8
5
6
7
8
6
7
HO
HO
HO
HO
PhHN
PhHN
PhHN
PhHN
1f
1g
1h
1i
3d (89)
3e (87)
3f (88)
3g (91)
3h (94)
NHPh
NHPh
NHPh
NHPh
8
with
a diol, the 1:1 molar ratio reaction of di(secondary
amine) 3e with diol 1c was carried out under the standard
9
Ph
Ph
N
H
N
H
6
Pt-Sn/γ-Al2O3
(0.5 mol % Pt)
10
10
10
Ph
Ph
HO
HO
PhHN
PhHN
1j
N
N
H
3e
6
ð3Þ
o-xylene, N2
145 oC, 24 h
-H2O
+
OH
NHPh
11
12
13
3i (79)
NHPh
1k
OH
OH
OH
HO
1c
7, 24%
3j (93)
HO
PhHN
1l
reaction conditions (Eq. 3). Over a period of 24 h, the monoamina-
tion product 7 was obtained in 24% yield and subsequent intramo-
lecular cyclization of 7 did not occur. When a di(primary amine),
that is, 2r, was applied in the reaction with diol 1g, inter- and intra-
molecular N-alkylation successively underwent to form the cycliza-
tion product 818 (45%) (Eq. 4), further revealing that di(primary
amine) is more reactive than its secondary analogue. This method
can provide an easy access to macrocyclic diamines.
O
O
OH
OH
NHPh 3k (50)
OH 1m
O
O
O
O
14
15
HO
PhHN
O
1n
OH
3l (20)
OH
O
O
O
O
O
PhHN
HO
OH
1o
OH
3m (29)
Pt-Sn/γ-Al O
H N
2
NH
2
2
3
a
Reaction conditions: diol 1, 1.0 mmol; amine 2a, 2.0 mmol; Pt–Sn/c-Al2O3
2r
(0.5 mol % Pt)
ð4Þ
catalyst, 200 mg (0.5 mol% Pt); o-xylene, 5 mL; 0.1 MPa N2 atmosphere, 145 °C,
HN
NH
+
o-xylene, N
2
24 h.
o
OH
145 C, 48 h
b
Isolated yields.
HO
-H O
2
1g
8, 45%
Recycling the catalyst was carried out in the N-alkylation of ani-
line 2a with 1,7-heptanediol (1f) under the standard conditions
shown in Tables 1 and 2. The catalyst was easily recycled by cen-
trifugation and did not lose activity during the first three run reac-
tions, while in the fourth run reaction its catalytic activity was
reduced by about 25%. Analysis of the supernatant from each-run
reaction mixture by ICP-AES technology revealed no Pt metal
leaching into the liquid phase. Decrease of the catalytic activity is
presumably attributed to the aggregation of Pt metal particles on
1,4-cyclohexanediol (1k) reacted with 2a formed diamine 3i (79%),
while N-alkylation of 2a by diol 1l with a longer chain produced
diamine product 3j in an excellent yield (93%) (entries 11 and
12). Using O-tethered diol 1m, only the monoamination product
3k was isolated in a moderate yield (50%), and increasing the num-
ber of tethering oxygen atoms lessened the reaction efficiency (en-
tries 13–15), which is presumably attributed to multiple
coordination of the tethering oxygen atoms to the catalytically ac-
tive Pt metal center, reducing the catalyst activity.
c-Al2O3 support during the catalyst reuse.
In summary, we have developed an efficient protocol to synthe-
The successful N-alkylation of aniline 2a with middle to long-
size diamines from the direct N-alkylation of amines with middle
to long-chain diols with heterogeneous bimetallic Pt–Sn/ -Al2O3
catalyst through a Hydrogen Borrowing strategy. That the catalyst
chain diols has revealed that the present Pt–Sn/c-Al2O3 catalyst
is very efficient for the direct synthesis of diamines (Table 1). Next,
N-alkylation of diverse amines 2 with 1,8-octanediol (1g) was
c

L.D. Wang et al. / Tetrahedron Letters 52 (2011) 7103–7107
7105
Table 2
Direct synthesis of diamines (3) from the reactions of 1,8-octanediol (1g) and amines (2)a
Pt-Sn/γ-Al2O3
-H2O
+ 2 R'RNH
(2)
HO
OH
R'RN
NRR'
6
6
1g
2
3
Entry
1
Amine (2)
Diamine 3b (%)
Me
Me
Me
NH
N
N
H
2b
6
2
H
3n (90)
2
3
Me
Me
NH2
Me
Me
N
H
N
H
Me
6
2c
3o (91)
Me
NH2
N
H
N
2d
6
H
3p (87)
3q (90)
Me
Me
Me
4
5
Me
NH2
Me
N
H
N
H
Me
2e
6
Cl
NH2
Cl
Cl
N
H
N
6
6
2f
H
3r (19)
Cl
N
H
OH
3r ′ (56)
6
7
Cl
Cl
NH
2
Cl
N
N
H
Cl
6
6
2g
2h
H
3s (20)
3t (9)
Cl
Cl
N
H
OH
3s′ (60)
Cl
NH2
N
H
N
H
6
6
Cl
N
H
OH
3t′ (61)
Cl
Cl
Cl
8
Cl
F
NH
2
Cl
N
H
N
H
Cl
2i
6
6
3u (7)
Cl
Cl
F
N
H
OH
3u ′ (55)
F
9
NH
N
N
2j
6
2
H
H
3v (79)
3w (72)
10
11
NH2
N
N
6
H
H
2k
N
N
N
N
NH
N
N
H
6
2l
2
H
3x (47)
N
H
OH
6
3x ′ (24)
(continued on next page)

7106
L.D. Wang et al. / Tetrahedron Letters 52 (2011) 7103–7107
Table 2 (continued)
Entry
Amine (2)
Diamine 3b (%)
H
N
Me
12
N
Me
N
Me
6
6
2m
2n
3y (17)
N
Me
OH
3y′ (55)
Me
NH
13
14
Complicated
4
2
NH
N
H
2
2o
6 (54)
Ph
Ph
N
N
H
N
15
16
6
6
3z (18)
Ph
Ph
NH
N
N
N
6
3z1 (31)
2p
OH
N
6
3z1 ′ (40)
NH
N
6
17
O
O
O
3z2 (84)
2q
a
Reaction conditions: diol 1g, 1.0 mmol; amine 2, 2.0 mmol; Pt–Sn/
Isolated yields.
c
-Al2O3 catalyst, 200 mg (0.5 mol % Pt); o-xylene, 5 mL; 0.1 MPa N2 atmosphere, 145 °C, 24 h.
b
5. (a) Kawahara, R.; Fujita, K.; Yamaguchi, R. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2010, 132, 15108;
is recyclable and the procedure is environmentally benign and
ligand-free is the feature of the methodology.
(b) Imm, S.; Bähn, S.; Neubert, L.; Neumann, H.; Beller, M. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed.
2010, 49, 8126; (c) Pingen, D.; Müller, C.; Vogt, D. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2010,
49, 8130; (d) Gunanathan, C.; Milstein, D. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 8661.
6. (a) Prades, A.; Peris, E.; Albrecht, M. Organometallics 2011, 30, 1162; (b)
Gnanaprakasam, B.; Zhang, J.; Milstein, D. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2010, 49, 1468;
(c) Sun, H.; Su, F. Z.; Ni, J.; Cao, Y.; He, H. Y.; Fan, K. N. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed.
2009, 48, 4390.
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2011, 9, 20; (b) Zhang, J.; Senthilkumar, M.; Ghosh, S. C.; Hong, S. H. Angew.
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Science 2007, 317, 790.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of
China, the National Basic Research Program of China (2009CB
825300), and the Innovation Program of CAS (DICP K2009D04) for
support of this research.
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Supplementary data
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Yamaguchi, K.; He, J. L.; Oishi, T.; Mizuno, N. Chem. Eur. J. 2010, 16, 7199; (c)
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Satsuma, A. ChemCatChem 2009, 1, 497.
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.tetlet.2011.10.100.
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amines with long-chain diols, see: (a) Andrushko, N.; Andrushko, V.; Roose, P.;
Moonen, K.; Börner, A. ChemCatChem 2010, 2, 640; (b) Bähn, S.; Tillack, A.; Imm,
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Farah, M. M.; Marsden, S. P.; Williams, J. M. J. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2009, 48,
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16.
A general procedure for the direct synthesis of diamines 3 from the N-
alkylation of amines 2 with diols 1: Under nitrogen atmosphere, to a 15-mL
Pyrex glass screw-cap tube were added diol 1 (1.0 mmol), amine 2 (2.0 mmol),
Pt–Sn/c-Al2O3 catalyst (200 mg, 0.5 mol % Pt), and o-xylene (5 mL). The
resultant mixture was stirred in the sealed tube at 145 °C for 24 h. After
cooled to ambient temperature, the catalyst was removed by centrifugation
and washed with CH2Cl2 (3 ꢀ 5 mL). The combined supernatant was
condensed under reduced pressure and subjected to purification by silica gel

L.D. Wang et al. / Tetrahedron Letters 52 (2011) 7103–7107
7107
column chromatography (eluent: petroleum ether (60–90 °C)/EtOAc = 20:1, v/
v), affording diamine 3. The known compounds were identified by comparison
of their NMR features with the reported data or of their GC traces with those of
the authentic samples. The spectroscopic features of these known compounds
are in good agreement with those reported in the literatures. All the new
products were characterized by NMR and HRMS techniques.
18. Compound 8: 1H NMR (CDCl3, 400 MHz, 23 °C) d 6.97 and 6.54 (d each, 4:4H,
J = 8.3 Hz, aromatic CH), 3.78 (s, 2H, ArCH2Ar), 3.47 (br, 2H, 2 ꢀ NH), 3.08 (t, 4H,
2 ꢀ NCH2), 1.59 and 1.28 (m each, 4:8 H, 6 ꢀ CH2); 13C{1H} NMR (CDCl3,
100 MHz, 23 °C)
d 146.7 (Cq, HN–C), 130.8 (Cq, C6H4), 129.7 and 112.9
(aromatic CH), 44.4 (HN–CH2), 40.2 (ArCH2Ar), 29.7, 29.5 and 27.2 (6 ꢀ CH2).
HRMS calcd for C21H28N2: 308.2252; found: 308.2252.
17. Liu, S. F.; Rebros, M.; Stephens, G.; Marr, A. C. Chem. Commun. 2009, 2308–
2310.