Nucleophilic acylation of symmetrical carboxylic anhydrides has inherited limitation of reaction efficiency along with relatively poor reactivity. Traditionally, one equivalent carboxylic acid is generated during nucleophilic acylation of a symmetrical anhydride, which always limits the yield of final product to 50% or less. This is a major drawback, which discourages the use of anhydrides for laboratory or industrial applications. Electrophilic activation of carboxylic anhydride using methanesulfonyl chloride is found to be an efficient method for nucleophilic acylation, which increases product yield by restricting the formation of corresponding acid as a side product. The developed protocol found to be a mild and high yielding methodology for one-pot nucleophilic acylation of carboxylic anhydrides with several type of N- and S-nucleophiles demonstrating appreciable functional group tolerance.

Herein, we report a sustainable approach for N-formylation of aromatic as well as aliphatic amines using sodium borohydride and carbon dioxide gas.