The development of catalytic systems based on earth-abundant metals for sustainable and affordable chemical synthesis remains a significant challenge. In this work, we report a highly efficient and selective nickel-catalyzed monoamination of 1,2-diols to access β-amino alcohols. The reaction proceeds under mild and benign conditions and exhibits a broad substrate scope with excellent functional group tolerance. Mechanistic studies reveal that the transformation occurs through double dehydrogenation of diols, followed by selective monoamination via a transfer hydrogenation/borrowing hydrogen tandem process.
Samal et al. (Thu,) studied this question.