Conversion of furfural to tetrahydrofuran-derived secondary amines under mild conditions

The production of amino-containing compounds from biomass is an important goal of research programs. Starting from carbohydrate-based furfural, a simple and highly efficient system was developed for producing a library of secondary and tertiary tetrahydrofurfurylamines under mild conditions (25 degrees C/1 bar H-2) with excellent yields (>90%). Commercially available Pd/Al2O3 proved to be a suitable catalyst and exhibited outstanding performance.