An Efficient Palladium-Catalyzed N-Alkylation of Amines Using Primary and Secondary Alcohols

PdCl2 in the presence of dppe or Xantphos(t-Bu) as the ligand is found to be an efficient catalyst for the N-alkylation of various primary and cyclic secondary amines using primary alcohols at 90-130 degrees C under neat conditions. Interestingly, good to excellent yields were achieved when more challenging secondary alcohols were used as alkylating agents at 130-150 degrees C. The reaction could be easily scaled up, as demonstrated for a 10 mmol scale achieving yields up to 90% with a TON of 900.