Frustrated Lewis Pair‐Catalyzed Hydroboration of Nitriles: FLP Versus Borenium Catalysis

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>A frustrated Lewis pair‐catalyzed hydroboration of aromatic and aliphatic nitriles was developed. The catalyst provides the primary amines in high yields of 77–99% with catalyst loading as low as 2 mol%. The reaction displays high functional group tolerance towards esters, amides, nitro groups and aliphatic halides. The addition of the diborylated amines to ethyl 3‐phenylpropiolate proceeds with Z‐selectivity with d.r. of &gt;99:1 in 77–90% yield over two steps. The reaction mechanism was investigated by control and computational experiments.</jats:p><jats:p><jats:boxed-text content-type="graphic" position="anchor"><jats:graphic xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" mimetype="image/png" position="anchor" specific-use="enlarged-web-image" xlink:href="graphic/adsc202200525-toc-0001-m.png"><jats:alt-text>magnified image</jats:alt-text></jats:graphic></jats:boxed-text> </jats:p>