Continuous-flow reductive N-methylation with highly active heterogeneous Pd catalysts and sequential-flow synthesis of N-monomethyl amines

Abstract

We describe continuous-flow N-methylation with formaldehyde and H₂ using heterogeneous Pd catalysts as a green synthetic method to access N-methyl amines. The catalyst exhibited excellent activity for aliphatic and aromatic amines. The developed method was also applied to sequential hydrogenation reactions to access challenging N-monomethyl amines.