Palladium-catalyzed chemoselective synthesis of arylamines from cyclohexanones with ammonium salts

The primary objective of organic synthesis is the utilization of inexpensive and readily available industrial chemicals in large quantities to produce valuable organic compounds. This study introduces a direct and selective approach for synthesizing arylamines using readily available cyclohexanones and ammonium salts through a dehydrogenative process. A variety of arylamine structural motifs, such as -cyclohexylanilines, diphenylamines, and -cyclohexyl--phenylanilines, were successfully synthesized with moderate to high yields. In comparison to traditional methods, these approaches are characterized by the utilization of simple starting materials, efficiency in steps and atom usage, as well as high selectivity.