Continuous-flow reductive N-methylation with highly active heterogeneous Pd catalysts and sequential-flow synthesis of N-monomethyl amines

We describe continuous-flow N-methylation with formaldehyde and H(2 )using heterogeneous Pd catalysts as a green synthetic method to access N-methyl amines. The catalyst exhibited excel-lent activity for aliphatic and aromatic amines. The developed method was also applied to sequential hydrogenation reactions to access challenging N-monomethyl amines.

Automated summary

We present a green synthetic method, continuous-flow N-methylation, utilizing heterogeneous Pd catalysts with formaldehyde and H(2) to access N-methyl amines. The catalyst shows excellent activity for aliphatic and aromatic amines, and the developed method is also applied to sequential hydrogenation reactions for challenging N-monomethyl amines.