Herein a practical and efficient potassium tert-butoxide (KOtBu)-facilitated amine acyl exchange reaction of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) with carboxylic acids is described. In the presence of catalytic amount of KOtBu, a variety of aliphatic and aromatic carboxylic acids are transformed to N,N-dimethylamides using DMF as the dimethylamine reagent with the assistance of trimethylacetic anhydride. The applicability of this protocol is demonstrated by late-stage dimethylamidation of complex drug molecules. A plausible reaction mechanism involving KOtBu-facilitated amine in situ generation from formamide decomposition and anhydride-mediated condensation is proposed on the base of mechanism investigations

Herein, we describe a concise and practical silver-catalyzed nitrogen atom transfer protocol to access versatile nitriles from ubiquitous carboxylic acids with N-cyano-N-phenyl-p-tolsulfonamide (NCTS). This protocol complements the established carboxylic acids to nitriles conversion methods, which suffer from tedious steps, high temperatures (≥ 200 °C), or limited substrate scope. This approach operates broadly across diverse aryl, alkenyl, and primary, secondary, tertiary alkyl carboxylic acids.

Comprehensive SummaryWe describe an iron‐catalyzed amide bond formation from readily available carboxylic acids and isocyanates. This method utilizes an abundant and biocompatible iron catalyst and easily accessible starting materials, generates CO2 as the only byproduct, and features broad substrate scopes with good functional group compatibility. Therefore, it provides a cost‐effective and practical protocol to access a diverse variety of amides.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.