Oxidative amine self-coupling provides direct access to amino acids in a one-pot transformation. We recently showed that a novel and plausible mechanism that is based on catalytic, quantitative self-coupling of amines by air oxygen can produce substituted amino acids in excellent yields. The benzoxazole catalysts developed here provide quantitative catalytic activity over 50 cycles with favorable kinetics with no degradation. A time resolved spectroscopic monitoring rules out an aldehyde intermediate route in the imine formation. These findings could shed light on the prebiotic chemistry, and at the same time provide new means and understanding for producing amino acids commercially.

Porous benzoxazoles as oxygenation catalysts: Case of amine self-coupling

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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