Base-free synthesis of furfurylamines from biomass furans using ru pincer complexes

Abstract

We report the first example of employing homogeneous organometal-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation for the selective reductive amination of furfurals to furfurylamines. An efficient, chemoselective, and base-free method is described using Ru-MACHO-BH as catalyst and /PrOH as H donor. The method tolerates a range of substituents affording moderate to excellent yields.