A one-pot chemoselective synthesis of secondary amines by using a biomimetic electrocatalytic system

A one-pot electrochemically induced oxidation-imine formation-reduction route to secondary amines is described in detail. The key step of the process consists of the o-iminoquinone-mediated chemoselective catalytic oxidation of a primary aliphatic amine substrate in the presence of a second amine used as, the alkylating agent. Through the examination of the scope of the reaction by systematically varying both amine substrate and amine alkylating agent, it can be shown that this reaction sequence, leaving ammonia as the sole by-product, allows the rapid synthesis of various secondary amines in moderate to good yields. This process, that highlights the pre-eminent green advantages of electrochemical synthesis, especially the utilization of electricity as energy instead of chemical reagents, high atom economy as well as ambient temperature and pressure, could be a mild alternative to already reported synthetic methods. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.