Conversion of Amides into Esters by the Nickel-Catalyzed Activation of Amide C-N Bonds

摘要

The amide function is ubiquitous in natural compounds asudwell as in man-made molecules and materials. It is generallyudvery stable and poorly reactive owing to its resonance-stabilizedudC–N group that imparts a planar geometry to amides.udIn contrast, carboxylic esters are generally reactive under audvariety of mild conditions; therefore, it is not surprising thatuda number of direct methods are available to the chemist forudconverting esters into amides (amino-de-alkoxylation reaction)udbut very few for achieving the opposite transformation.udRecently, Professors Neil Garg and Ken Houk from the Universityudof California, Los Angeles (UCLA, USA) reported in Natureuda groundbreaking method for converting amides into estersudwith a high degree of efficiency.