The synthesis of substituted guanidines is of significant interest for their use as versatile ligands and for the synthesis of bioactive molecules. Lithium amides supported by tetramethylethylenediamine have recently been shown to catalyze the guanylation of amines with carbodiimide. In this report, density functional theory (DFT) calculations are used to provide insight into the mechanism of this transformation. The mechanism identified through our calculations is a carbodiimide insertion into the lithium-amide bond to form a lithium guanidinate, followed by a proton transfer from the amine. The proton transfer transition state requires the dissociation of one of the chelating nitrogen centers of the lithium guanidinate, proton abstraction from the amine, and bond formation between the lithium center and the amine nitrogen. On the basis of this mechanism, further calculations predicted that aluminum amides would also function as active catalysts for the guanylation of amines. We confirm this experimentally and report the development of aluminum amides as a new main group catalyst for the guanylation of a range of electron-poor amines with carbodiimide.

A novel method for the cyclotrimerization of dimethylcyanamide to form hexamethylmelamine has been developed using an aluminium amide catalyst; detailed DFT modelling of the catalytic cycle supports a triple insertion, nucleophilic ring closure, deinsertion mechanism.

While lithium amides supported by tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA) are efficient catalysts in the synthesis of substituted guanidines via the guanylation of an amine with carbodiimide, as well as the guanylation of phosphines and conversion of alkynes into propiolamidines, aluminum amides are only efficient catalysts for the guanylation of amides. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were used to explain this difference in activity. The origin of this behavior is apparent in the critical step where a proton is transferred from the substrate to a metal guanidinate. The activation energies of these steps are modest for amines, phosphines, and alkynes when a lithium catalyst was used, but are prohibitively high for the analogous reactions with phosphines and alkynes for aluminum amide catalysts. Energy decomposition analysis (EDA) indicates that these high activations energies are due to the high energetic cost of the detachment of a chelating guanidinate nitrogen from the aluminum in the proton transfer transition state. Amines are able to adopt an ideal geometry for facile proton transfer to the aluminum guanidinate and concomitant Al-N bond formation, while phosphines and alkynes are not.

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