It's well established that the amination of haloalkanes gives poor yields, with ammonia being a poorer nucleophile than methylamine.
Is it possible that methylamine or ammonia could be used in a dual phase reaction with a quaternary ammonium salt used as a phase transfer catalyst?
In a dual solvent reaction, azides give relatively poor yields for secondary haloalkenes, but it does work. Using a PTC these yields are significantly higher.
Could a PTC be used to increase yields with something such as methylamine HCL, since it has ionic character?
The side products of both reactions are primarily eliminations, so if the PTC helps to reduce the elimination side reaction in the azide scenario, could it also serve to do the same thing in the direct amination?