Metal-free reductive amination of aldehydes for the synthesis of secondary and tertiary amines

摘要

Reductive amination of aldehydes to produce secondary amines at room-temperature by in situ generated benzimidazoline is discussed. The bonus of the reaction is the formation of pharmaceutically important benzimidazole as a by-product in good yield, which can be recovered from the reaction mixture by simple filtration. The product, secondary amine, is transformed to tertiary amine in the same pot.