Cobalt Carbonyl‐Based Catalyst for Hydrosilylation of Carboxamides

The cobalt carbonyl [Co 2 (CO) 8 ] complex is employed as a useful catalyst for the reduction of tertiary amides to the corresponding tertiary amines using 1,1,3,3‐tetramethyldisiloxane (TMDS) and poly(methylhydrosiloxane) (PMHS) as silane reagents under thermal (100 °C) or photo‐assisted conditions (UV, 350 nm at room temperature). Of particular interest, a low catalytic amount (0.5 mol%) of [Co 2 (CO) 8 ] is used to perform the reaction with 2.2 equiv. of PMHS at 100 °C for 3 h. This reaction is the first example of a cobalt‐catalyzed hydrosilylation of amides.