The chemistry of enamines has been described in several reviews [25][26][27][28][29] and in a recent monograph [30].
CONDENSATION REACTIONS
A. Condensation of Secondary Amines with Aldehydes and KetonesThe most widely used method for preparing enamines involves the conden sation of aldehydes and ketones with secondary amines (Eq. 6). In 1936, Mannich and Davidsen [31] were the first to describe the reaction of secondary amines with aldehydes in the presence of anhydrous potassium carbonate at approximately 0°C to give enamines (Eqs. 6, 7).
R-CH 2 CH=0 + 2HNR ,
R-C-CH R' + HNRJ
II oMannich and Davidsen [31] also reported that most of the aldehydes were first converted to a diamino intermediate which on distillation afforded the enamine. Less successful was the attempt to extend the reaction to ketones. Only with the use of calcium oxide at elevated temperatures were the enamines directly obtained, but in poor yields. Herr and Heyl [32,33] found that better yields of enamines from ketones can be obtained by the azeotropic removal of water in the presence or absence [32,33] of acid catalysts [12a, b, 34, 35]