Highly Selective N-Monomethylanilines Synthesis From Nitroarene and Formaldehyde via Kinetically Excluding of the Thermodynamically Favorable N,N-Dimethylation Reaction

The synthesis of N-monomethylamine remains a challenging topic because the N,N-dimethylation reaction is thermodynamically favorable. In this work, the kinetically controlled N-monomethylamine synthesis from nitroarene and paraformaldehyde/H2 is reported to have superhigh N-monomethylamine selectivity in the presence of a Pd/TiO2 catalyst. The superior selectivity should be attributed to the preferential adsorption of the primary amine over N-monomethylamine on the Pd/TiO2 surface, as elucidated by NH3/Me2NH-TPD, while the excellent catalytic activity could be associated with the good H2 activation ability and high amine adsorbing capacity of the catalyst, as elucidated by NH3-TPD and H2-TPR tests. Good results were obtained with a variety of nitroarenes containing methyl, methoxyl, hydroxyl, fluoride, trifluoromethyl, ester, and amide substituents as starting materials, and the potential synthetic utility of this protocol in pharmaceutical is illustrated by N-monomethylation of drug molecules, such as clinidipine, nimesulide, procaine, and methyl aminosalicylate.