The titanocene-catalyzed reduction of acetamides to tertiary amines by PhMeSiH2

Abstract
A variety of acetamide derivatives are reduced in excellent yields to tertiary amines by PhMeSiH2 in the presence of Cp2TiX2 (X = F or Me) catalysts. The reactions are very clean at 80 °C. At room temperature a secondary reaction, hydrogenolysis of the C(O)—N bond, intervenes and reduces the chemoselectivity. Nevertheless, this chemistry provides a simple methodology for the amide/alkylamine transformation using inexpensive, commercially available reagents.Key words: amides, reduction, secondary amides, methylphenylsilane, titanocene, catalysis.