Communication
doi.org/10.1002/chem.202100238
Chemistry—A European Journal
which are undoubtedly formed under the reaction conditions
(Figure S68), by distillation or column chromatography. Particu-
larly promising are the good yields in which the chloro-substi-
tuted allylamines E-10, E-15, and E-19 were formed because
the presence of a chloro-substituent offers various possibilities
for further functionalization (e.g., Pd-catalyzed cross coupling).
An additional single-crystal X-ray diffraction of compound E-
15[27] that confirmed the E configuration of the allylamine
double bond is in good agreement with the excellent stereose-
lectivity observed in all hydroaminoalkylation reactions.
amines and terminal alkynes can principally be achieved with
the formamidinato titanium catalyst IV, which has already
shown high catalytic activity in hydroaminoalkylation reactions
of alkenes with N-methylamines.[26] Although the correspond-
ing product 27 could only be isolated in 24% yield, this result
strongly supports the idea that the hydroaminoalkylation of al-
kynes has a great potential for a wide range of further applica-
tions. Because 27 represents the first hydroaminoalkylation
product obtained from a terminal alkyne, we were delighted
to verify its structure by single-crystal X-ray diffraction of the
corresponding hydrochloride 27·HCl.[27]
In summary, we have developed a simple catalytic protocol
for the intermolecular titanium-catalyzed hydroaminoalkylation
of alkynes with secondary amines which directly gives access
to allylic amines. As a consequence of the CÀC bond forming
key step of the proposed catalytic cycle, the insertion of the
alkyne into the TiÀC bond of a catalytically active titanaaziri-
dine, disubstituted alkynes are exclusively converted into allylic
amines with an E configuration of the alkene unit. While best
results were obtained with various N-benzylanilines, reactions
of N-alkylanilines and N-alkylbenzylamines with disubstituted
alkynes such as diphenylacetylene or 3-hexyne can also be
achieved. Although unsymmetrically disubstituted alkynes
react sluggishly, a successful reaction of N-methylaniline with a
terminal alkyne regioselectively delivered the branched hydro-
aminoalkylation product. Because the latter result strongly sug-
gests that it should be possible to significantly expand the
scope of the catalytic reaction, we think that this work will be
the starting point of a synthetically useful and promising new
field in hydroaminoalkylation chemistry. Further optimization
studies are currently underway in our laboratory and will be re-
ported in due course.
Subsequently, we also investigated the behavior of a few
alkyl-substituted amines and 3-hexyne (20) as the first example
of a dialkyl substituted alkyne (Scheme 6). Although 20 turned
out to be less reactive than diphenylacetylene (2), a simple ex-
tension of the reaction time to 20 h led to a successful reaction
with N-benzylaniline (1) that gave access to the corresponding
allylic amine E-24 in an excellent yield of 84%. The products E-
21, E-22, and E-23, which were obtained from additional reac-
tions of 2 with N-alkylanilines or N-isopropylbenzylamine, clear-
ly prove that in principle, alkylamines also represent suitable
substrates for the hydroaminoalkylation of alkynes, although in
these cases, further optimization is required to increase the ef-
ficiency of the reaction.
Scheme 6. Ti-catalyzed hydroaminoalkylation reactions of diphenylacetylene
(2) or 3-hexyne (20) with N-alkylanilines, a N-alkylbenzylamine, or N-benzyla-
niline (1). Reaction conditions: amine (1.0 mmol), alkyne (1.2 mmol), II
(0.10 mmol, 10 mol%), 1408C, 4, 16, or 20 h, sealed ampoule (V=5 mL).
[a] 4 h. [b] 16 h. [c] 20 h.
Acknowledgements
We thank the Research Training Group “Chemical Bond Activa-
tion” (GRK 2226) funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemein-
schaft and the Heinz Neumüller Stiftung for financial support
of this project and Jessica Reimer for experimental assistance.
Open access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
Finally, we tried to expand the substrate scope of the reac-
tion to unsymmetrically disubstituted alkynes, terminal alkynes,
and N-methylaniline (25, Scheme 7). For that purpose, 1-
phenyl-1-butyne, 1-phenyl-1-hexyne, trimethylsilylacetylene,
and tert-butylacetylene (26) were initially reacted with N-ben-
zylaniline (1) in the presence of catalyst II but unfortunately,
due to poor regioselectivity (Figures S73 and S74) we were not
able to isolate pure products. On the other hand, an additional
catalyst screening for the reaction of 26 with 25 revealed that
obviously, corresponding reactions of N-methyl-substituted
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Keywords: alkynes
·
amines
·
CÀH
activation
·
hydroaminoalkylation · titanium
[2] L. E. Overman, N. E. Carpenter, Org. React. 2005, 66, 1–107.
[5] A. F. Abdel-Magid, K. G. Carson, B. D. Harris, C. A. Maryanoff, R. D. Shah,
Scheme 7. Ti-catalyzed hydroaminoalkylation reaction of tert-butylacetylene
(26) with N-methylaniline (25).
Chem. Eur. J. 2021, 27, 6899 –6903
6902
ꢀ 2021 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH