-Alkylation of Amines with Alcohols Catalyzed by Manganese(II) Chloride or Bromopentacarbonylmanganese(I).

A manganese-catalyzed -alkylation reaction of amines with alcohols via hydrogen autotransfer strategy has been demonstrated. The developed practical catalytic system including an inexpensive, nontoxic, commercially available MnCl or MnBr(CO) as the metal salt and triphenylphosphine as a ligand provides access to diverse aromatic, heteroaromatic, and aliphatic secondary amines in moderate-to-high yields. In addition, this operationally simple protocol is scalable to the gram level and suitable for synthesizing heterocycles such as indole and resveratrol-derived amines known to be active for Alzheimer's disease.