Primary amine prepn by hydrogenation of nitriles - with a ruthenium catalyst and THF or 3-10C alkanol as solvent

摘要

Primary amines are prepd. by hydrogenating a nitrile (esp. a nitrile obtained by cyanoethylation of H2O, an alcohol, a glycol or an aldehyde) in the presence of a catalytic amt. of Ru in a solvent comprising THF or a 3-10c alkanol. Use of the above solvents allows high yields (e.g. 88-90%) to be obtained without the addn. of a base (e.g. NH4 NH4OH); 3-10C alkanols give much higher yields than MeOH and EtOH. The starting material is pref. a dinitrile a dinitrile of formula NC-R1-O-R2-O-R3-CN or NH-R1-O-R3-CN (where R1, R2 and R3 are 1-10C alkylene or 3-10C isoalkylene gps.) The solvent is pref. THF, n-PrOH, i-i-PrOH or T-BuOH, and is pref. used in an amt. of 0.1-200 (esp. 1-100) moles per mole of nitrile.