Poly(N-vinylimidazole) as a halogen-free and efficient catalyst for N-Boc protection of amines under solvent-free conditions

Abstract

Poly(N-vinylimidazole) is able to promote the quantitative N-Boc protection of a variety of functionalized amines with t-butyl dicarbonate at room temperature under solvent-free conditions. This new method consistently has the advantage of providing excellent yields, while the catalyst is halogen-free and can be reused and recovered several times. Further, the reaction can be carried out even in a larger scale, making the procedure potentially useful for industrial applications.