Dehydrogenation of Primary Alkyl Azides to Nitriles Catalyzed by Pincer Iridium/Ruthenium Complexes

Pincer metal complexes exhibit superior catalytic activity in the dehydrogenation of plain alkanes, but find limited application in the dehydrogenation of functionalized organic molecules. Starting from easily accessible primary alkyl azides, here we report an efficient dehydrogenation of azides to nitriles using pincer iridium or ruthenium complexes as the catalysts. This method offers a route to cyanide-free preparation of nitriles without carbon chain elongation and without the use of strong oxidants. Both benzyl and linear aliphatic azides can be dehydrogenated with tert-butylethylene as the hydrogen acceptor to afford nitriles in moderate to high yields. Various functional groups can be tolerated, and the H-C-C-H bond dehydrogenation does not occur for linear alkyl azide substrates. Furthermore, the pincer Ir catalytic system was found to catalyze the direct azide dehydrogenation without the use of a sacrificial hydrogen acceptor.