Cobalt‐Catalyzed Intermolecular Hydroamination of Unactivated Alkenes Using NFSI as Nitrogen Source

Comprehensive Summary Cheap metal (Fe, Mn, and Co)-catalyzed hydroamination of alkenes has been an attractive method for synthesis of amines because of biocompatibility of metal, excellent Markovnikov selectivity and chemoselectivity. However, most reports are limited to unsaturated nitrogen sources (nitric oxide, azos, azides, cyano, etc.), for which aminated products are very limited. Notably, while used widely for fluorinating reaction, N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide (NFSI) as amine source for hydroamination has seldom been reported. Here we developed a cobalt-catalyzed intermolecular hydroamination of unactivated alkenes using NFSI as nitrogen source under mild conditions. The reaction exhibits excellent chemo- and regio-selectivity with no hydrofluorination or linear-selectivity products. Notably, the reaction proceeded with excellent yield even though the amount of Co(salen) catalyst was reduced to 0.2 mol%. Recently, a similar work was also reported by Zhang and coworkers (ref. 19).