A novel efficient and chemoselective method for the reduction of nitriles using the system silane/oxo-rhenium complexes

This work reports the reduction of nitriles to the corresponding primary amines with silanes catalyzed by oxo-rhenium complexes. The catalytic system PhSiH3/ReIO2(PPh3)2 (10 mol %) reduced efficiently a series of nitriles in the presence of a wide range of functional groups such as –Cl, –F, –Br, –I, –CF3, –OCH3, –SCH3, –SO2CH3 and –NHTs.