(35) Ru(II) Centered Catalyst for Amide Synthesis

Every day people use products that contain amides, which are the basic building blocks of many polymers, agrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals. However, the current methods of synthesizing amides are considered to be wasteful,... [ view full abstract ]

Every day people use products that contain amides, which are the basic building blocks of many polymers, agrochemicals, and pharmaceuticals. However, the current methods of synthesizing amides are considered to be wasteful, toxic, and difficult to optimize for a reaction, thus promoting research into alternative methods of synthesizing them. One popular method utilizes organometallic catalysts, which employs mid/late transition metals, such as Ru^II, as metal centers for the molecules. Using organometallic catalysts provides a more atom-economical method by providing shorter and milder reaction conditions. We synthesized a new Ru^II catalyst, ([cis-RuCl₂(dppb)(^tbpy)]), for the production of amides from alcohols and amines via an amine dehydrogenative pathway. Looking forward, we plan to further study the effectiveness of different bis-chelating nitrogen ligands such as ampy and other variations of bpy to better understand the effects of electron density of the metal center on catalysis. We also plan to test other catalytic conditions: solvents, alcohols, bases, amine, temperature, and time.