Arylated benzylamines find wide use as synthesis units and active substance components; see, for example, WO-A-02/00612.
It is known that arylated benzylamines can be prepared by reacting aniline derivatives with benzyl chlorides (cf. H. G. O. Becker, Organikum, 19th ed., Barth Dt. Verlag der Wiss. 1993, p.451, ISBN 3-335-00343-8). However, a disadvantage of this process is that correspondingly functionalized anilines and benzyl chlorides are in many cases obtainable only with difficulty.
The preparation of arylated benzylamines by means of a palladium-catalysed amination reaction of chloroaromatics is described, for example, in J. Org. Chem. 2002, 67, 5553-5566, or that of bromoaromatics in J. Org. Chem. 2000, 65, 1158-1174. The solvents used here include polar solvents, for example dimethoxyethane, or nonpolar aprotic solvents, for example toluene. However, in-house investigations have found that only incomplete conversion to the desired arylated benzylamine is achieved when some reactants are converted by the process described.
There is accordingly a need to provide a process for preparing arylated benzylamines from the corresponding haloaromatics and benzylamines.