Illustrative is the production of tert-butylamine: The Ritter reaction of isobutene with hydrogen cyanide is not useful in this case because it produces too much waste.
[1] Usually, the amine reacts as the nucleophile with another organic compound acting as the electrophile.
This sense of reactivity may be reversed for some electron-deficient amines, including oxaziridines, hydroxylamines, oximes, and other N–O substrates.
Electron-rich organic substrates that may be used as nucleophiles for this process include carbanions and enolates.
Alpha hydroxy acids can be converted into amino acids directly using aqueous ammonia solution, hydrogen gas and a heterogeneous metallic ruthenium catalyst.