Transition-Metal-Free Hydration of Nitriles Using Potassium tert-Butoxide under Anhydrous Conditions.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- Midya, Ganesh Chandra; Kapat, Ajoy; Maiti, Subhadip; Dash, Jyotirmayee
- Source
- Journal of Organic Chemistry. 4/17/2015, Vol. 80 Issue 8, p4148-4151. 4p.
- Subject
- *HYDRATION
*NITRILES
*POTASSIUM
*AMIDES
*TRANSITION metal catalysts
*CATALYSIS
*CHEMICAL synthesis
- Language
- ISSN
- 0022-3263
Potassium tert-butoxide acts as a nucleophilic oxygen source during the hydration of nitriles to give the corresponding amides under anhydrous conditions. The reaction proceeds smoothly for a broad range of substrates under mild conditions, providing an efficient and economically affordable synthetic route to the amides in excellent yields. This protocol does not need any transition-metal catalyst or any special experimental setup and is easily scalable to bulk scale synthesis. A single-electron-transfer radical mechanism as well as an ionic mechanism have been proposed for the hydration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]