N-heterocyclic carbene copper(I) catalysed N-methylation of amines using CO2

Dalton Trans. 2015 Nov 7;44(41):18138-44. doi: 10.1039/c5dt03506f. Epub 2015 Sep 30.

Abstract

The N-methylation of amines using CO2 and PhSiH3 as source of CH3 was efficiently performed using a N-heterocyclic carbene copper(i) complex. The methodology was found compatible with aromatic and aliphatic primary and secondary amines. Synthetic and computational studies have been carried out to support the proposed reaction mechanism for this transformation.