Simple and convenient synthesis of 3,5-bis-(trifluoromethyl)benzylamine via biomimetic 1,3-proton shift reaction

This paper describes an efficient, practical synthesis of 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzylamine via biomimetic transamination of 3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)benzaldehyde with benzylamine. From a synthetic standpoint the reported procedure is highly operationally convenient and scalable as it does not require any chromatographic purification of the intermediate products.