Investigation towards the reductive amination of levulinic acid by B(C6F5)3/hydrosilane system

Abstract The selective transformation of the renewable biomass resources into the highly value-added platform chemicals is essentially important for sustainable chemistry. Here we report a simple and highly efficient strategy for the synthesis of N-heterocyclic compounds from the reductive amination of the bio-derived levulinic acid and a wide range of anilines by metal-free B(C6F5)3/hydrosilane catalyst system. Through adjusting the amounts of hydrosilane, we can synthesize a series of pyrrolidones or pyrrolidines, respectively. Isotope-labeled NMR experiments were conducted to investigate the possible reaction pathway.