β-amino acid esters are important scaffolds in medicinal chemistry and valuable building blocks for materials synthesis. Surprisingly, the waste-free construction of such moieties from readily available or renewable starting materials has not yet been addressed. Here we report on a robust and versatile method for obtaining β-amino acid esters by direct amination of β-hydroxyl acid esters via the borrowing hydrogen methodology using a cooperative catalytic system that comprises a homogeneous ruthenium catalyst and an appropriate Brønsted acid additive. This method allows for the direct amination of esters of 3-hydroxypropionic acid, a top value-added bio-based platform chemical, opening a simple route to access β-amino acid esters from a range of renewable polyols including sugars and glycerol.

β-氨基酸酯是药物化学中的重要支架，是材料合成的重要组成部分。出人意料的是，尚未解决由易获得或可再生的起始原料对这些部分进行无浪费的构建。在这里，我们对一个强大和灵活的对于通过的β羟基酸酯直接胺化获得β氨基酸酯的方法报告经由利用协作催化系统，该系统包括一个均匀的钌催化剂和合适的布朗斯台德酸添加剂的借款氢方法。该方法可以直接胺化一种高附加值的生物基平台化学品3-羟基丙酸的酯，从而为从一系列可再生的多元醇（包括糖和甘油）中获取β-氨基酸酯开辟了一条简单的途径。