A scalable homogeneous metal-catalyzed protocol for direct amidation of carboxylic acids is presented. The use of 2-10 mol% of the commercially available Zr(Cp)(2)(OTf)(2)center dot THF results in high yields of amides at moderate temperature, using an operationally convenient reaction protocol that circumvents the use of water scavenging techniques.

The selective reduction of amides into an intermediate hemiaminal catalyzed by Mo(CO)(6) together with the inexpensive and easy to handle TMDS (1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane) as reducing agent, followed by subsequent trapping of the hemiaminal with a cyanide source, allows for the straightforward synthesis of alpha-amino nitriles. The methodology presented here, displays high levels of chemoselectivity allowing for the reduction of amides in the presence of functional groups such as ketones, imines, aldehydes, and acids, which affords a simple route for the synthesis of alpha-amino nitriles with a broad scope of functionalities in high yields. Furthermore, the applicability of this methodology is demonstrated by scale up experiments and by derivatization of the target compounds into synthetically interesting products. The selective cyanation is successfully applied in late stage functionalizations of amide containing drugs and prolinol derivatives.

A Mo(CO)(6) (molybdenumhexacarbonyl) catalyzed reductive functionalization of amides to afford 5-amino substituted 4,5-dihydroisoxazoles is presented. The reduction of amides generates reactive enamines, which upon the addition of hydroximinoyl chlorides and base undergoes a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reaction that gives access to the desired heterocyclic compounds. The transformation of amides is highly chemoselective and tolerates functional groups such as nitro, nitriles, esters, and ketones. Furthermore, a versatile scope of 4,5-dihydroisoxazoles derived from a variety of hydroximinoyl chlorides and amides is demonstrated.

The development of an efficient protocol for the reductive functionalization of amides into pyrimidinediones and amino-substituted thioacrylamides is presented. Enamines are generated in a highly chemoselective amide hydrosilylation reaction catalyzed by molybdenum hexacarbonyl in combination with 1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane. The direct addition of either isocyanate or isothiocyanate generates the corresponding pyrimidinediones and 3-aminothioacrylamides in high yields.

The mechanism of the zirconium-catalyzed condensation of carboxylic acids and amines for direct formation of amides was studied using kinetics, NMR spectroscopy, and DFT calculations. The reaction is found to be first order with respect to the catalyst and has a positive rate dependence on amine concentration. A negative rate dependence on carboxylic acid concentration is observed along with S-shaped kinetic profiles under certain conditions, which is consistent with the formation of reversible off-cycle species. Kinetic experiments using reaction progress kinetic analysis protocols demonstrate that inhibition of the catalyst by the amide product can be avoided using a high amine concentration. These insights led to the design of a reaction protocol with improved yields and a decrease in catalyst loading. NMR spectroscopy provides important details of the nature of the zirconium catalyst and serves as the starting point for a theoretical study of the catalytic cycle using DFT calculations. These studies indicate that a dinuclear zirconium species can catalyze the reaction with feasible energy barriers. The amine is proposed to perform a nucleophilic attack at a terminal eta(2)-carboxylate ligand of the zirconium catalyst, followed by a C-O bond cleavage step, with an intermediate proton transfer from nitrogen to oxygen facilitated by an additional equivalent of amine. In addition, the DFT calculations reproduce experimentally observed effects on reaction rate, induced by electronically different substituents on the carboxylic acid.

The development of a protocol for the reductive functionalization of amides into N-sulfonylformamidines is reported. The one-pot procedure is based on a mild catalytic reduction of tertiary amides into the corresponding enamines by the use of Mo(CO)₆ (molybdenum hexacarbonyl) and TMDS (1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane). The formed enamines were allowed to react with sulfonyl azides to give the target compounds in moderate to good yields.

Triazoles and triazolines are important classes of heterocyclic compounds known to exhibit biological activity. Significant focus has been given to the development of synthetic approaches for the preparation of triazoles, and they are today easily obtainable through a large variety of protocols. The number of synthetic procedures for the formation of triazolines, on the other hand, is limited and further research in this field is required. The protocol presented here gives access to a broad scope of 1,4,5-substituted 1,2,3-triazolines through a one-pot transformation of carboxamides. The two-step procedure involves a Mo(CO)6-catalyzed reduction of tertiary amides to afford the corresponding enamines, followed by in situ cycloaddition of organic azides to form triazolines. The amide reduction is chemoselective and allows for a wide variety of functional groups such as esters, ketones, aldehydes, and imines to be tolerated. Furthermore, a modification of this one-pot procedure gives access to the corresponding triazoles. The chemically stable amide functionality is demonstrated to be an efficient synthetic handle for the formation of highly substituted triazolines or triazoles.

The formation of secondary alcohol products via a tandem -alkylation/transfer hydrogenation of ketones with primary alcohols is a little explored reaction with unrealized potential for green synthesis. This review covers the current literature in the field, including asymmetric versions of the reaction, and outlines future possibilities and challenges for the methodology. 1 Introduction 2 Formation of Racemic Alcohols 3 Formation of Enantiomerically Enriched Alcohols 4 Conclusions

The chemoselective reduction of amides in the presence of other more reactive reducible functional groups is a highly challenging transformation, and successful examples thereof are most valuable in synthetic organic chemistry. Only a limited number of systems have demonstrated the chemoselective reduction of amides over ketones. Until now, the aldehyde functionality has not been shown to be compatible in any catalytic reduction protocol. Described herein is a [Mo(CO)₆]-catalyzed protocol with an unprecedented chemoselectivity and allows for the reduction of amides in the presence of aldehydes and imines. Furthermore, the system proved to be tunable by variation of the temperature, which enabled for either C−O or C−N bond cleavage that ultimately led to the isolation of both amines and aldehydes, respectively, in high chemical yields.

A modular ligand library of -amino acid hydroxyamides and thioamides was prepared from 10 different N-tert-butyloxycarbonyl-protected -amino acids and three different amino alcohols derived from 2,3-O-isopropylidene--d-mannofuranoside. The ligand library was evaluated in the half-sandwich ruthenium- and rhodium-catalyzed asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of a wide array of ketone substrates, including simple as well as sterically demanding aryl alkyl ketones, aryl fluoroalkyl ketones, heteroaromatic alkyl ketones, aliphatic, conjugated and propargylic ketones. Under the optimized reaction conditions, secondary alcohols were obtained in high yields and in enantioselectivities up to >99%. The choice of ligand/catalyst allowed for the generation of both enantiomers of the secondary alcohols, where the ruthenium-hydroxyamide and the rhodium-thioamide catalysts act complementarily towards each other. The catalytic systems were also evaluated in the tandem isomerization/asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of racemic allylic alcohols to yield enantiomerically enriched saturated secondary alcohols in up to 98% ee. Furthermore, the catalytic tandem -alkylation/asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of acetophenones and 3-acetylpyridine with primary alcohols as alkylating and reducing agents was studied. Secondary alcohols containing an elongated alkyl chain were obtained in up to 92% ee.