Some Observations on the Preparation of Amides and their Reduction to Amines in Ionic Liquids

The preparation of amides in ionic liquids was explored using the Schotten-Baumann procedure,the Weinreb amidation of esters and the classical coupling reaction using EDC,HBTU or DMTMM as the coupling agents.In any case amides were obtained in comparable or better yields and with a simplified procedure than using conventional solvents.Moreover,the amides were directly reduced in the same flask to the corresponding secondary or tertiary amines by heating in the presence of solid sodium borohydride.