Transfer Hydrogenation of Nitrones to Hydroxylamine Derivatives with PhSiH3

Abstract Herein, we report a practical metal- and additive-free method for transfer hydrogenation of nitrones, employing a readily available PhSiH3 as the hydrogen donor. The findings demonstrated the effective conversion of a wide range of ketone- and aldehyde-derived nitrones into their corresponding hydroxylamine derivatives in good to excellent yields under mild conditions. The reaction is readily scalable and demonstrates broad functional group tolerance, accommodating bromo, chloro, fluoro, trifluoromethyl, thioether, thiophene, and furan substituents. Hence, the proposed operationally simple protocol provides a practical and sustainable strategy, facilitating the synthesis of structurally diverse hydroxylamine derivatives.