Reductive amination
The imine forms and is reduced in the same pot, giving the amine.
What it needs, and what it gives
- Reaction class
- Reduction
- A hydride mild enough to leave the carbonyl alone, usually a triacetoxyborohydride. Without one the reaction stops at the imine.
- not stated
- Mechanism
- Reductive amination, 4 steps
How it is thought to happen
The amine and the carbonyl condense to a C=N, and the reducing agent then delivers a hydride to that carbon. The order matters: nothing reduces the carbonyl itself.
- The amine adds to the carbonyl
- The proton moves from nitrogen to oxygen
- Water leaves and the C=N forms
- The reducing agent delivers a hydride
Try it on your own structures
Enter your reactants in the Reaction Lab. If this transformation matches what you drew, it is applied and the outcome is shown next to the records that back it — with the count of documented reactions doing the same thing on substrates like yours, rather than a confidence score.
Other reduction transformations
Alkene hydrogenation
Hydrogen adds across a double bond, turning an alkene into an alkane.
Reduction of an aldehyde or ketone
Hydride adds to the carbonyl carbon, giving the alcohol.
Reduction of an ester
The ester is taken to the primary alcohol, releasing the alcohol of the ester.
Reduction of an amide
The carbonyl is removed entirely, leaving the amine.
Reduction of a nitro group
A nitroarene is reduced to the aniline.