Amine
In organic chemistry, amines (US: or , UK: , or ) are compounds and functional groups that contain a basic nitrogen atom with a lone pair. Amines are formally derivatives of ammonia, wherein one or more hydrogen atoms have been replaced by a substituent such as an alkyl or aryl group. (These may respectively be called alkylamines and arylamines; amines in which both types of substituent are attached to one nitrogen atom may be called alkylarylamines.) Important amines include amino acids, biogenic amines, trimethylamine, and aniline; see Category:Amines for a list of amines. Inorganic derivatives of ammonia are also called amines, such as chloramine (NClH2); see Category:Inorganic amines.
Compounds with a nitrogen atom attached to a carbonyl group, thus having the structure R–CO–NR′R″, are called amides and have different chemical properties from amines.
Classes of amines
An aliphatic amine has no aromatic ring attached directly to the nitrogen atom.Aromatic amines have the nitrogen atom connected to an aromatic ring as in the various anilines. The aromatic ring decreases the alkalinity of the amine, depending on its substituents. The presence of an amine group strongly increases the reactivity of the aromatic ring, due to an electron-donating effect.
