Catalytic N-Alkylation of Amines with Aldehydes by a Molecular Mo Oxide Catalyst

Secondary and tertiary amine derivatives are very important in chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The N-alkylation of amines with aldehydes is a proper way to form secondary and tertiary amines. However, the traditional catalyst systems for this transformation bring a series of problems such as narrow substrate scope, challenges of difficult catalyst preparation and metal residues and toxicity. Herein an efficient way to perform N-alkylation of amines with aldehydes was described which used a molecular Mo oxide catalyst. In this pathway, various aldehyde and amine derivatives were successfully converted to the corresponding secondary and tertiary amines with high selectivity and efficiency. In addition, the catalyst was easy to prepare, and could be recycled six times without appreciable loss of conversion. Finally, the reaction mechanism was presented based on the observation of the possible intermediates and control experiments.