Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Solvent-free organic syntheses Microwave assisted Reductive Animation

microswitch - 8-9-2007 at 13:06

This is an easy-to-find pdf on an important subject. My question is will this sort of thing work for the reductive animation of phenylacetones?


2.5.2. Reductive alkylation of amines.
Reductive amination of carbonyl compounds has been well documented using sodium cyanoborohydride, sodium triacetoxyborohydride or NaBH4 coupled with sulfuric acid. These reagents either produce waste stream or involve the use of corrosive acids. The environmentally benign methods developed in our laboratory have now been extended to a solvent-free reductive amination procedure for carbonyl compounds using wet montmorillonite K 10 clay supported sodium borohydride that is facilitated by microwave irradiation

Solvent-free organic syntheses
using supported reagents and microwave irradiation
Rajender S. Varma
Department of Chemistry and Texas Research Institute for Environmental Studies (TRIES), Sam Houston
State University, Huntsville, Texas 77341-2117, USA.

stoichiometric_steve - 9-9-2007 at 00:31

My question is: are phenylacetones carbonyl compounds?

Nicodem - 9-9-2007 at 05:25

... and my question: What is "reductive animation"?
If it was not repeated in the title and the post I would tend to believe it to be a typo of someone trying to say "reductive amination", but typos generally happen once only.

microswitch - 16-9-2007 at 08:35

Gee Golly Gosh!!! OK OK, Reductive amination. Nicodem, as usual you are correct. I've not been paying too much attention. But spelling mistakes aside, can we actually verify that this sort of research has important and practical implications?

Nicodem - 16-9-2007 at 09:51

I don't understand the main question. What is it that you want to know?

microswitch - 16-9-2007 at 10:06

Quote:
Originally posted by Nicodem
I don't understand the main question. What is it that you want to know?


1. Has anyone tried Microwave assist. reductive amination with Phenylacetones?

2. Could Microwave assit. amination be used to synthesize methylamine?

3. Given the purported advantages of solvent-free synthesis is this research not the holy grail of amateur organic synthesis?

Thanks for your patience in advance :D

Nicodem - 16-9-2007 at 10:13

1. Which phenylacetones and why? No, I never used any microwave assisted reductive amination. I see no point in using the microwave reactor where it is not needed.

2. Why would somebody do something so stupid? Methylamine is a gas!

3. Makes no sense. There is no advantage in solvent-free synthesis. It is only a hype to get papers published and Varma is excellent in using the latest fashions to get his papers through. Obviously, I would never use such a method in the lab, unless I needed only a mmol of the product and if someone else actually prepared the solid support for me.

microswitch - 16-9-2007 at 10:27

Quote:
Originally posted by Nicodem
1. Which phenylacetones and why? No, I never used any microwave assisted reductive amination. I see no point in using the microwave reactor where it is not needed.

OK, thanks for this reply. It's not needed because it's only useful for small samples?


2. Why would somebody do something so stupid? Methylamine is a gas!

Yes, I had that one coming. But CH3NH2 can be dissolved in a liquid, and that's where I was hoping something *might* go.