Research News (February 6, 2009)
Alkyl Aluminum Catalyzed Addition of Amines to Carbodiimides: A Highly Efficient Route to Substituted Guanidines
Wen-Xiong Zhang,* Dongzhen Li, Zitao Wang, and Zhenfeng Xi*
Organometallics 2009,28,882–887.
Alkyl aluminums such as AlMe3, AlEt3,and AlEt2Cl, can serve as excellent catalyst precursors for the catalytic addition of amines to carbodiimides yielding quantitatively the corresponding tri-substituted guanidines.Aromatic C-X (X = F, Cl, Br, and I) bonds, nitro NO2, and terminal alkyne unit can survive the reaction conditions. An aluminum guanidinate species has been confirmed to be a true catalyst species.