The amide bond is one of the most important functionalities in organic chemistry. It occurs in peptides, enzymes, polymers, natural products and in a huge number of pharmaceuticals. A traditional method to form amides is by reacting activated carboxylic acids with amines, this however requires coupling reagents and stoichiometric amounts of waste is produced.  There are a great deal of catalytic systems utilizing esters, nitriles, aldehydes and alcohols as starting material, although only a few catalytic systems are known for the direct formation of amides, starting from non-activated carboxylic acids. Our group has developed a mild and efficient protocol based on Lewis acids as catalysts for the formation of secondary and tertiary amides from non-activated carboxylic acids. Our most recent progress within this field, has shown that Lewis acids also are suitable as catalysts for the formation of primary and N,N-dimethyl amides, employing carbamates as non-gaseous precursors for amines.

Green catalytic processes for the formation of amides

245th National Meeting (2013)

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