Very small gold clusters (3 to 10 atoms) formed from conventional gold salts and complexes can catalyze various organic reactions at room temperature, even when present at concentrations of parts per billion. Absorption and emission ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry revealed that, for example, the ester-assisted hydration of alkynes began only when clusters of three to five gold atoms were formed. The turnover numbers and turnover frequencies associated with these catalyzed reactions can be as high as 10(7) and 10(5) per hour, respectively.

Catalytic hydrogenation of amides is of great interest for chemists working in organic synthesis, as the resulting amines are widely featured in natural products, drugs, agrochemicals, dyes, etc. Compared to traditional reduction of amides using (over)stoichiometric reductants, the direct hydrogenation of amides using molecular hydrogen represents a greener approach. Furthermore, amide hydrogenation is a highly versatile transformation, since not only higher amines (obtained by CO cleavage), but also lower amines and alcohols, or amino alcohols (obtained by C-N cleavage) can be selectively accessed by fine tuning of reaction conditions. This review describes the most recent advances in the area of amide hydrogenation using H 2 exclusively and molecularly defined homogeneous as well as nanostructured heterogeneous catalysts, with a special focus on catalyst development and synthetic applications. T he development of green and sustainable methods is a central focus of modern organic synthesis and its applications in various areas of the chemical industry. In this respect, many reduction reactions, traditionally employing stoichiometric amounts of metal hydrides with inherent low atom efficiency 1 , can be favorably replaced by catalytic hydrogenations. In fact, the combination of molecular hydrogen and catalysts does not only allow avoiding formation of waste products 2 , it also opens the door to clean transformations based on renewable energies as the conversion of solar or wind energy to "green" hydrogen is likely to be implemented in the coming years. Among the many reduction reactions known, amide hydrogenation can be encountered as one of the most desired considering the importance of the derived amines in several branches of chemical industry. In fact, since the start of the Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable in the United States in 2005, several projects aimed to the achievement of a practical amide hydrogenation methodology have been supported 3,4. The long-term interest of the pharmaceutical industry in this specific transformation is explained by the fact that it ideally affords structurally complex amines, present in many of the currently employed drugs. Furthermore, amines are also in bulk and fine chemicals used in the manufacture of plastics, textiles, surfactants, dyes, and many more 5. Amides play a central role in the chemistry of life, as they are the key elements to generate peptides and proteins from amino acid monomers. At the same time, they are present in artificial