Three-component radical homo Mannich reaction

Abstract Aliphatic amine, especially tertiary aliphatic amine, is one of the most popular functionalities found in pharmaceutical agents. The Mannich reaction is a classical and widely used transformation for the synthesis of β-amino-carbonyl products. Due to an ionic nature of the mechanism, the Mannich reaction can only use non-enolizable aldehydes as substrates, which significantly limits the further applications of this powerful approach. Here we show, by employing a radical process, we are able to utilize enolizable aldehydes as substrates and develop the three-component radical homo Mannich reaction for the streamlined synthesis of γ-amino-carbonyl compounds. The electrophilic radicals are generated from thiols via the desulfurization process facilitated by visible-light, and then add to the electron-rich double bonds of the in-situ formed enamines to provide the products in a single step. The broad scope, mild conditions, high functional group tolerance, and modularity of this metal-free approach for the synthesis of complex tertiary amine scaffolds will likely be of great utility to chemists in both academia and industry.