Copper-Catalyzed Reductive N-Alkylation of Amides with N-Tosylhydrazones Derived from Ketones.

A CuI-catalyzed reductive coupling of ketone-derived N-tosylhydrazones with amides is presented. Under the optimized conditions, an array of N-tosylhydrazones derived from aryl-alkyl and diaryl ketones could couple effectively with a wide variety of (hetero)aryl as well as aliphatic amides to afford the N-alkylated amides in high yields. The method represents the very few examples for reliably accessing secondary and tertiary amides through a reductive N-alkylation protocol.