Amines and nitrogen-containing compounds are important structural motifs for various applications such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, dye pigments, etc. Consequently, various catalytic methodologies have been devised to facilitate their synthesis through the establishment of C-N bonds such as hydroamination, Ullmann reaction, Buchwald-Hartwig amination etc. However, majority of these methods suffer from a substantial amount of waste generation, tedious workup, or use of hazardous alkyl halides. Thus, the development of more efficient and atom-economical methodologies utilizing renewable and nontoxic starting materials for the construction of C-N bond is now a trending goal in sustainable chemistry. In this context, transition metal-catalyzed formation of C-N bonds via coupling of sustainable alcohols (readily available from lignocellulosic biomass) as alkylating agents with amines, amides, etc. following the hydrogen auto transfer/Borrowing hydrogen (BH) methodology has gained special attention due to its high atom economy and greener approach (produces water as the sole byproduct). Further, this process requires neither an external oxidant for the activation of starting materials nor any external reductant for the hydrogenation of unsaturated intermediates.1 On the other hand, NHCs have established themselves as versatile ligands for transition metals for diverse catalytic transformations, possibly due to their strong σ-donor properties along with tuneable topologies.2 Thus, it is advantageous to explore NHC-based transition metal complexes for BH methodologies. Accordingly, a variety of NHC-transition metal (Ir, Ru, Mn, Ni, and Co, etc.) complexes has been utilized for these methodologies.3 Thus, the presentation will focus on the application of NHC-transition metal complexes in these transformations over the last decades and the most important structural motifs of the explored catalysts will be presented to understand the catalyst development based on the NHC ligand system. The research objectives and primary outcomes will also be presented during the seminar.

References:
1. Corma, A.; Navas, J.; Sabater, J. M. Chem. Rev. 2018, 118, 1410.
2. Donnelly, K. F.; Petronilho, A.; Albrecht, M. Chem. Commun. 2013, 49, 1145.
3. (a) Xie, X.; Huynh, V. H. ACS Catal. 2015, 5, 4143; (b) Kerdphon, S.; Quan, X.; Parihar, S. V.; Andersson, G. P. J. Org. Chem. 2015, 80, 11529; (c) Huang, M.; Li, Y.; Li, Y.; Liu, J.; Shu, S. S.; Liu, Y.; Ke, Z. Chem. Commun. 2019, 55, 6213.