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Primary amines have been subjected to an acceptorless dehydrogenative homo‐ and heterocoupling into imines with a cobalt catalyst. The catalytically active species are composed of cobalt nanoparticles, which are generated in situ by heating Co2(CO)8 in the presence of trioctylphosphine oxide as a surfactant. The nanoparticles have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy where the image showed spherical and small particles with a narrow size distribution. The catalyst can be recovered and used again with essentially no effect on the yield. The catalyst can also be used for the dehydrogenative coupling of alcohols and amines into imines.

A new, versatile reagent, N,N,N-triphenylselenyl-isocyanuric acid (TPSCA) has been prepared, characterized, and used as a source of the electrophilic phenylselenyl group. This relatively stable compound was utilized for an efficient α-selenenylation reaction of aldehydes and ketones catalyzed by L-prolinamide under mild reaction conditions. The organocatalytic asymmetric α-selenenylation of an aldehyde was also studied and the reaction was found to proceed with high enantioselectivity (96% ee).

A novel catalytic system including NiCl2‐NHC ligand precursor has been developed for the preparation of imines from amines and ketones from alcohols. Owing to the acceptorless dehydrogenation pathway for this reaction, the hydrogen gas is liberated as a by‐product. The active catalyst is generated in situ by the reaction of nickel (II) chloride, bis (imidazolium) chlorides and potassium tert‐butoxide. The products were obtained in good to excellent yields and a wide variety of amines and ketones were applied successfully in this protocol.

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