Silylative Reductive Amination of α,β-Unsaturated Aldehydes: A Convenient Synthetic Route to β-Silylated Secondary Amines.

Described here is a reductive amination/hydrosilylation cascade of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes mediated by a Lewis acidic borane catalyst. The present reaction system provides an one-pot synthetic route towards β-silylated secondary amines that have not been accessible by other previous catalysis. Comparative 1 H NMR studies on the silylative reduction of enimines revealed that steric bulkiness of primary amine reactants strongly affects both catalytic efficiency and regioselectivity. This strategy was applicable to a broad range of substrates and amenable to one-pot gram-scale synthesis. Moreover, a diastereoselective introduction of the β-silyl group was also found to be feasible (d.r. up to 71:29).