Nowadays, in Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis (SPPS), being either manual, automated, continuous flow or microwave-assisted, the reaction with various coupling reagents takes place via in situ active ester formation. In this study, the formation and stability of these key active esters were investigated with time-resolved 1 H NMR by using the common PyBOP/DIEA and HOBt/DIC coupling reagents for both aand b-amino acids. Parallel to the amide bond formation, the hydrolysis of the a/b-active esters, a side reaction that is a considerable efficacy limiting factor, was studied. Based on the chemical nature/ constitution of the active esters, three amino acid categories were determined: (i) the rapidly hydrolyzing ones (t < 6 h) with smaller (Ala) or even longer side chains (Arg) holding a large protecting group; (ii) branched amino acids (Ile, Thr) with slowly hydrolyzing (6 < t < 24 h) propensities, and (iii) nonhydrolyzing ones, such as the hard-to-couple b-amino acids or b-sugar amino acid derivatives, stable for longer times (t > 24 h) in solution. The current insight into the kinetics of this key hydrolysis side reaction serves as a guide to optimize the coupling conditions of aand b-amino acids, thereby saving time and minimizing the amounts of reagents and amino acids to be usedall key factors of more environmentally friendly chemistry. a 10 min: typical time of active ester formation; 1 and 3 hours: typical reaction time used for coupling. b Active ester was decomposed. c Active ester is formed >99% conversion aer 3 hours. 30724 | RSC Adv., 2019, 9, 30720-30728 This journal is a Hydrolysis already started before the rst measured point since [AC] 0,calc > [AC] 0,meas . b [H 2 O] 0 was xed at 0.25 mM during parameter estimation. c The value not signicant, condence intervals are to large. d [H 2 O] used as initial water concentration. e With [AC] 0 ¼ 0.1 and [H 2 O] ¼ 0.25 mM. f Not applicable; the estimated water concentration was inferior to that of half of the active ester concentration.This journal is Fig. 3 Classification of the proteinogenic aand selected b-amino acids based on their molecular topology. Fast hydrolyzing ones are highlighted green, slow hydrolyzing ones with blue and no-hydrolyzing ones with red.30726 | RSC Adv., 2019,9,[30720][30721][30722][30723][30724][30725][30726][30727][30728] This journal is