Tandem Transformation of Nitro Compounds into N‐Methylated Amines: Greener Strategy for the Utilization of Methanol as a Methylating Agent

Abstract A simple air‐ and moisture‐stable, highly efficient ruthenium NNN pincer complex is reported for the first time to catalyze the tandem transformation of various aromatic and aliphatic nitro compounds into the corresponding N ‐methylated amines in up to 98 % yield by using methanol as a green methylating agent. Gram‐scale reactions of challenging nitro substrates demonstrated the practical application aspects of this catalytic system. Importantly, the N ‐methylamine moiety could be smoothly introduced to various complex molecular structures without using any expensive palladium/phosphine/amine‐based cross‐coupling reactions.