Dehydrocoupling of amine boranes via tin(IV) and tin(II) catalysts

Catalytic dehydrocoupling of primary and secondary amine boranes and ammonia borane using tin(IV) and tin(II) catalysts is presented. These tin compounds have been demonstrated to dehydrocouple phosphines where catalytic activity was dependent on metal oxidation state. In contrast, the mechanism of amine borane dehydrocoupling appears to be substrate dependent. The most sterically encumbered substrate, tBuNH2BH3, appears to engage in β-hydrogen elimination based on the observation of tBuN = BH2, whereas Me2NHBH3 appears to be involved in a chain-growth process as evidenced by linear diborazane and the absence of amino borane. Though these tin catalysts are moderately active in the spectrum of amine borane dehydrocoupling catalysts, the dependence of mechanism on substrate appears to be unique.