Facile and Highly Efficient N-Formylation of Amines Using a Catalytic Amount of Iodine under Solvent-Free Conditions

Abstract

We developed a simple, practical, and catalytic method for the N-formylation of a wide variety of amines in the presence of molecular iodine as a catalyst under solvent-free conditions. This reaction is applicable to the chemoselective N-formylation of amino groups and α-amino acid esters without epimerization.