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.