ChemInform Abstract: Ruthenium-Catalyzed Direct Amination of Alcohols with Tertiary Amines

A highly selective phosphine-based ruthenium catalyst system efficiently catalyzes the direct amination of alcohols with aliphatic tertiary amines, yielding unsymmetric tertiary amines in yields up to 87%. Ligand and solvent both affect the reaction yields significantly. The reaction can be performed with a wide variety of functionalities.