Amine synthesis via iron-catalysed reductive coupling of nitroarenes with alkyl halides

Chi Wai Cheung and Xile Hu ()
Additional contact information
Chi Wai Cheung: Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Catalysis, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), ISIC-LSCI, BCH 3305
Xile Hu: Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis and Catalysis, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), ISIC-LSCI, BCH 3305

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract (Hetero)Aryl amines, an important class of organic molecules in medicinal chemistry, are most commonly synthesized from anilines, which are in turn synthesized by hydrogenation of nitroarenes. Amine synthesis directly from nitroarenes is attractive due to improved step economy and functional group compatibility. Despite these potential advantages, there is yet no general method for the synthesis of (hetero)aryl amines by carbon–nitrogen cross-coupling of nitroarenes. Here we report the reductive coupling of nitroarenes with alkyl halides to yield (hetero)aryl amines. A simple iron catalyst enables the coupling with numerous primary, secondary and tertiary alkyl halides. Broad scope and high functional group tolerance are demonstrated. Mechanistic study suggests that nitrosoarenes and alkyl radicals are involved as intermediates. This new C–N coupling method provides general and step-economical access to aryl amines.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12494 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms12494

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12494

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().