Chemoselective Reduction of Tertiary Amides under Thermal Control: Formation of either Aldehydes or Amines

The chemoselective reduction of amides in the presence of other more reactive reducible functional groups is a highly challenging transformation, and successful examples thereof are most valuable in synthetic organic chemistry. Only a limited number of systems have demonstrated the chemoselective reduction of amides over ketones. Until now, the aldehyde functionality has not been shown to be compatible in any catalytic reduction protocol. Described herein is a [Mo(CO)(6)]-catalyzed protocol with an unprecedented chemoselectivity and allows for the reduction of amides in the presence of aldehydes and imines. Furthermore, the system proved to be tunable by variation of the temperature, which enabled for either C-O or C-N bond cleavage that ultimately led to the isolation of both amines and aldehydes, respectively, in high chemical yields.