Convenient Lanthanum-Mediated Synthesis of Bulky tert-Alkyl Amines from Nitriles

Abstract

Tert-alkyl amines can be conveniently prepared in one step from nitriles by a double addition of ethyl or propyl Grignard reagents mediated by a commercially available lanthanum chloride-lithium chloride complex solution. The reaction operates on a variety of benzonitriles, with several heterocyclic nitriles and an alkyl nitrile also being suitable substrates.