Palladium and Raney nickel catalyzed methanolic cleavage of stable borane-amine complexes.

[figure: see text] Palladium and Raney nickel were found to catalyze the methanolysis of borane-amine adducts. Hence, strongly complexed amines can now be liberated by simple treatment with Pd/C or Raney Ni in methanol. The method is applicable to primary, secondary, tertiary, and aromatic amines, and the mildness of the reaction conditions allows preservation of otherwise labile functional groups.