Early Main Group Metal Catalysts for Imine Hydrosilylation.

The efficient catalytic reduction of imines with phenylsilane is achieved by using the potassium, calcium and strontium based catalysts [(DMAT)K (THF)] , (DMAT) Ca⋅(THF) and (DMAT) Sr⋅(THF) (DMAT=2-dimethylamino-α-trimethylsilylbenzyl). Eight different aldimines and the ketimine Ph C=NPh could be successfully reduced by PhSiH at temperatures between 25-60 °C with catalyst loadings down to 2.5 mol %. Also, simple amides like KN(SiMe ) or Ae[N(SiMe ) ] (Ae=Ca, Sr, Ba) catalyze this reaction. Activities increase with metal size. For most substrates the activity increases along the row K