Tandem reductive amination and deuteration over a phosphorus-modified iron center
Deuterated amines are key building blocks for drug synthesis and the identification of metabolites of new pharmaceuticals, which drives the search for general, efficient, and widely applicable methods for the selective synthesis of such compounds. Here, we describe a multifunctional phosphorus-doped carbon-supported Fe catalyst with highly dispersed isolated metal sites that allow for tandem reductive amination-deuteration sequences. The optimal phosphorus-modified Fe-based catalyst shows excellent performance in terms of both reactivity and regioselectivity for a wide range of deuterated anilines, amines, bioactive complexes, and drugs (>50 examples). Experiments on the gram scale and on catalyst recycling show the application potential of this method. Beyond the direct applicability of the developed method, the described approach opens a perspective for the development of multifunctional single-atom catalysts in other value-adding organic syntheses.
Authors
- Matthias Beller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5709-0965)
- Jianglin Duan
- Kathrin Junge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7044-8888)
- Haifeng Qi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9387-1195)
- Yujing Ren (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0851-8248)
- Graham J. Hutchings (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8885-1560)
- Stuart H. Taylor (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1933-4874)
- Yueyue Jiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2820-4182)
- Yong Qin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5567-1464)
- Nicholas F. Dummer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0946-6304)
- Haijun Jiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2947-5937)
- Bin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3172-8056)
Institutions
- Northwestern Polytechnical University (CN)
- Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (DE)
- Institute of Coal Chemistry (CN)
- Cardiff University (GB)
- Cardiff Metropolitan University (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-02-21
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55722-9
- Citations
- 11
- Primary Topic
- Chemical Reactions and Isotopes
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 8.70
Funders
- Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
- Salt Science Research Foundation
- UK Research and Innovation
- National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory
- H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions