Dichotomy of Atom-Economical Hydrogen-Free Reductive Amidation vs Exhaustive Reductive Amination.

Rh-catalyzed one-step reductive amidation of aldehydes has been developed. The protocol does not require an external hydrogen source and employs carbon monoxide as a deoxygenative agent. The direction of the reaction can be altered simply by changing the solvent: reaction in THF leads to amides, whereas methanol favors formation of tertiary amines.

The synthesis of sterically hindered amines by a direct reductive amination of ketones.

An atom-economical methodology for the synthesis of sterically hindered tertiary amines was developed, which is based on complementary Rh- and Ru-catalyzed direct reductive amination of ketones with primary and secondary amines using carbon monoxide as a deoxygenating agent.

Ruthenium-catalyzed reductive amination without an external hydrogen source.

A ruthenium-catalyzed reductive amination without an external hydrogen source has been developed using carbon monoxide as the reductant and ruthenium(III) chloride (0.008-2 mol %) as the catalyst. The method was applied to the synthesis of antianxiety agent ladasten.

Atom- and step-economical preparation of reduced Knoevenagel adducts using CO as a deoxygenative agent.

A highly efficient one-step Rh-catalyzed preparation of reduced Knoevenagel adducts of various aldehydes and ketones with active methylene compounds has been developed. The protocol does not require an external hydrogen source and employs carbon monoxide as a deoxygenative agent. The use of malonic acid or cyanoacetamide enabled efficient formal deoxygenative addition of methyl acetate or acetonitrile to aldehydes. The developed methodology was applied to the synthesis of the precursors of biomedically important compounds.