Ruthenium-catalyzed Formation of Tertiary Amines from Nitriles and Alcohols

Abstract A ruthenium-catalyzed tertiary-amine formation was developed using the borrowing hydrogen strategy. Various tertiary amines were obtained efficiently from nitriles and primary alcohols. Two possible pathways were found for the tertiary-amine formation under RuCl3/dppf catalytic conditions. The nitriles mainly act as a nitrogen source in this kind of transformation.