Cobalt-Catalyzed Deoxygenative Hydroboration of Nitro Compounds and Applications to One-Pot Synthesis of Aldimines and Amides

The commercially available and bench-stable Co(acac)₂ ligated with bis[(2-diphenylphosphino)phenyl] ether (dpephos) was employed for selective room temperature hydroboration of nitro compounds with HBPin (TOF up to 4615 h^-1), tolerating halide, hydroxy, amino, ether, ester, lactone, amide and heteroaromatic functionalities. These reactions offered a direct access to a variety of N-borylamines RN(H)BPin, which were in situ treated with aldehydes and carboxylic acids to produce a series of aldimines and secondary carboxamides without the need for dehydrating and/or coupling reagents. Combination of these transformations in a sequential one-pot manner allowed for direct and selective synthesis of aldimines and secondary carboxamides from readily available and inexpensive nitro compounds.