Production of alkoxyl-functionalized cyclohexylamines from lignin-derived guaiacols

The transformation of renewable lignin-based platform chemicals into value-added nitrogen-containing compounds is an emerging strategy for lignin utilization. However, multi-reactive sites on these platform chemicals make it challenging to control the product selectivity, thereby resulting in limited success. In this work, we developed the reductive-coupling of guaiacol, a typical lignin-based platform chemical, with amines and H2 to synthesize methoxy-functionalized cyclohexylamines. It was demonstrated that Pd/C was a very efficient catalyst for this kind of reaction, and high yields of the target products can be obtained. Notably, this methodology can be applied for the reductive-coupling of various guaiacol analogues with amines to synthesize alkoxyl-functionalized cyclohexylamines with high yields. A mechanism study revealed that the reaction occurred through the generation of 2-methoxycyclohexanone and its subsequent reductive amination.