Selective and Efficient Iridium Catalyst for the Reductive Amination of Levulinic Acid into Pyrrolidones.

The catalytic reductive amination of levulinic acid (LA) into pyrrolidones with an iridium catalyst using H as hydrogen source is reported. The chemoselective iridium catalyst displayed high efficiency for the synthesis of a variety of N-substituted 5-methyl-2-pyrrolidones and N-arylisoindolinones. N-Substituted 5-methyl-2-pyrrolidone was also evaluated as a biosourced substitute solvent to NMP (N-methylpyrrolidone) in the catalytic arylation of 2-phenylpyridine.