The hydrogenation of nitriles to primary amines is an industrially relevant process that has few examples of homogeneous, first-row transition metal complexes that are competent. Our monoanionic biscarbene cobalt pincer complexes have been previously reported to be capable of hydrogenating alkenes and the semi-hydrogenation of alkynes. This has now been extended to the hydrogenation of nitriles to selectively form primary amines in excellent yields at only 4 bar of hydrogen pressure. Additionally, with the isolation of a low valent Cobalt(I) complex, the mechanism has been investigated and found to be Lewis-acid assisted. The substrate scope and relative stoichiometric and mechanistic studies will be presented.

Lewis-acid assisted catalytic hydrogenation of nitriles using an air-stable monoanionic biscarbene cobalt(III) pincer complex

254th National Meeting (2017)

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