Brønsted Acid-Catalyzed Transfer Hydrogenation of Imines and Alkenes Using Cyclohexa-1,4-dienes as Dihydrogen Surrogates

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Cyclohexa-1,4-dienes are introduced to Brønsted acid-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation as an alternative to the widely used Hantzsch dihydropyridines. While these hydrocarbon-based dihydrogen surrogates do offer little advantage over established protocols in imine reduction as well as reductive amination, their use enables the previously unprecedented transfer hydrogenation of structurally and electronically unbiased 1,1-di- and trisubstituted alkenes. The mild procedure requires 5.0 mol % of Tf2NH, but the less acidic sulfonic acids TfOH and TsOH work equally well.