Abstract

Aliphatic secondary and tertiary amines are widely used in the production of pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, dyes, surfactants and rubber chemicals.

Most traditional synthetic methods are often unsuitable for large-scale production due to poor selectivity, harsh reaction conditions and the cost of starting materials.

In this context, hydroaminomethylation (HAM) is a very attractive catalytic process with high atom economy that starts from inexpensive reagents, such as alkenes.

This review aims to provide an updated overview of hydroaminomethylation as a useful tool for synthesizing aliphatic secondary and tertiary amines. Therefore, the discussion will focus on both unsaturated starting compounds and the amines obtained by this one-pot reaction.

Keywords: Amines, hydroaminomethylation, terminal olefins, internal olefins, oleochemicals, terpenes, asymmetric catalysis.

Graphical Abstract