Manganese-Catalyzed Anti-Markovnikov Hydroamination of Allyl Alcohols via Hydrogen-Borrowing Catalysis

Controlling the selectivity in a hydroamination reaction is an extremely challenging yet highly desirable task for the diversification of amines. In this article, a selective formal anti-Markovnikov hydroamination of allyl alcohols is presented. It enables the versatile synthesis of valuable gamma-amino alcohol building blocks. A phosphine-free Earth's abundant manganese(I) complex catalyzed the reaction under hydrogen-borrowing conditions. A vast range of aliphatic, aromatic amines, drug molecules, and natural product derivatives underwent successful hydroamination with primary and secondary allylic alcohols with excellent functional group tolerance (57 examples). The catalysis could be performed on a gram scale and has been applied for the synthesis of drug molecules. The mechanistic studies revealed the metal-ligand bifunctionality as well as hemilability of the ligand backbone as the key design principle for the success of this catalysis.