Iron‐Catalyzed Reductive Amination from Levulinic and Formic Acid Aqueous Solutions: An Approach for the Selective Production of Pyrrolidones in Biorefinery Facilities

Abstract The synthesis of several pyrrolidones (PYR), including a highly complex tetracyclic one (40‐91% yields), is described employing an inexpensive iron catalyst and aqueous solutions of biomass‐derived levulinic acid (LA) and formic acid (FA). The method is broad since it works with many structurally different amines. Considering that all produced LA from a real biorefinery facility will most probably be further derivatized directly from the hydrolysed biomass in aqueous solutions (without isolation), this method furnishes many advantages when compared to previous ones that employ different solvents or neat LA.