phenethylamine derivatives, underwent a direct aromatic carbonylation to afford five- or six-membered benzolactams. In the carbonylation, the chelation effect or steric repulsion between Pd(II) and the meta-substituent in the ortho-palladation and the ring sizes of cyclopalladation products that were formed prior to carbonylation were found to generate good site selectivity and increase the reaction rate. In
react with various aromatic aldehydes in the absence of any catalyst, solid support, or solvent, to give imines after a reaction time of eight minutes under microwave irradiation by a clean and very efficient process (yields: 75-100%). In the case of volatile amine, methylamine, 1,3-dimethylurea dispersed on montmorillonite Kl 0 is used as an amine precursor to prepare the corresponding imines.