Synfacts 2007(9): 0988-0988  
DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-968883
Organo- and Biocatalysis
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Thiourea-Catalyzed Transfer Hydrogenation of Aldimines

Contributor(s): Benjamin List, Subhas Chandra Pan
Z. Zhang, P. R. Schreiner*
Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Germany
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
23 August 2007 (online)

Significance

The authors report a practical method for the reductive amination of aldehydes and reduction of aldimines using thiourea catalyst 1 and also question some of the published results on the reductive amination of aldehydes and ketones. They found that thiourea catalyst 2 is inefficient for the reductive amination of benz­aldehyde but thiourea catalyst 1 smoothly gave the product in 86% yield. In addition, with 1 mol% of catalyst 1, good to excellent yields (80-93%) were obtained for the reduction of different preformed aromatic and aliphatic aldimines.