Redox-neutral dehydrogenative cross-coupling of alcohols and amines enabled by nickel catalysis

Abstract

Presented herein is a facile and straightforward synthetic method for the construction of amides via Ni/NHC-catalyzed amidation of alcohols with amines. The strategy exhibits various advantages over existing methods, including base metal catalysis, commercially available catalyst, removal of oxidant, good yields (up to 95%), good functional group tolerance and substrate generality. Moreover, the nature of the reaction was revealed by NMR spectroscopy and isolation of intermediates.