Salt-free synthesis of tertiary amines by ruthenium-catalyzed amination of alcohols

The amination of secondary alcohols to give tertiary amines in the presence of different in situ generated ruthenium catalysts has been investigated in detail. By applying a combination of [Ru-3(CO)(12)] and N-phenyl-2-(dicyclohexylphosphanyl)pyrrole as the catalyst, cyclic amines can be alkylated with different alcohols in high yield, whereas aliphatic amines gave transalkylation side products. ((C) Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2008).