A novel efficient and chemoselective method for the reduction of nitriles using the system silane/oxo-rhenium complexes

Abstract

This work reports the reduction of nitriles to the corresponding primary amines with silanes catalyzed by oxo-rhenium complexes. The catalytic system PhSiH 3/ReIO 2(PPh 3) 2 (10 mol %) reduced efficiently a series of nitriles in the presence of a wide range of functional groups such as –Cl, –F, –Br, –I, –CF 3, –OCH 3, –SCH 3, –SO 2CH 3 and –NHTs.