Free formic acid version of the Eschweiler-Clarke reaction
An efficient version of the Eschweiler-Clarke reaction without formic acid has recently been published [1]. This new procedure is particularly suitable for substrates sensitive to acidic conditions, as outlined in the Scheme below.
A mechanism to explain this transformation as well as the scope of this methodology are also presented.
[1] K. O. Biriukov, E. Podyacheva, I. Tarabrin, O. I. Afanasyev, D. Chusov, J. Org. Chem. 2024, 89, 3580-3584.