Ruthenium-Catalyzed Tertiary Amine Formation from Nitroarenes and Alcohols

A highly selective ruthenium-catalyzed C-N bond formation was developed by using the hydrogen-borrowing strategy. Various tertiary amines were obtained efficiently from nitroarenes and primary alcohols. The reaction tolerates a wide range of functionalities. A tentative mechanism was proposed for this direct amination reaction of alcohols with nitroarenes.