Simple palladium‐catalyzed C–N bond formation for poor nucleophilicity of aminonaphthalenes

Aromatic amines is not used commonly in allylic amination, presumably because of their less nucleophilic nature compared with the more extensively used benzylamine or relatively stable anionic nitrogen nucleophiles. An eco‐friendly method for C–O bond activation of allylic acetates using palladium associated with ligands in water leading to N ‐allylation was described in this study. The palladium‐catalyzed allylic amination of allylic acetate with aminonaphthalenes gave 34–95% yields to the corresponding N ‐allylic aminonaphthalenes. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.