Alkylation of ammonia:When ammonia reacts with an alkyl halide, it produces a mixture of primary, disubstituted, and trisubstituted amines. This results in a mixture of products.
Reductive amination of aldehydes or ketones: This involves their reduction in the presence of ammonia or primary/secondary amines and results in the formation of primary, secondary, or tertiary amines. When a ketone reacts with ammonia, and this is followed by catalytic or chemical reduction using sodium cyanoborohydride, it yields a primary amine.
InGabriel synthesis, potassium phthalimide is reacted with an alkyl halide to produce an N‐alkyl phthalimide. This N‐alkyl phthalimide can be hydrolyzed by aqueous acids or bases into the primary amine.