Efficient Bimetallic Catalysis of Nitrile Hydration to Amides with a Simple Pd(OAc)2/Lewis Acid Catalyst at Ambient Temperature

Transition-metal-catalyzed nitrile hydration is an atom-economic method for the synthesis of various amides. This work demonstrates for the first time that the addition of non-redox metal ions like Sc3+ dramatically accelerate the hydration of various nitriles to amides at ambient temperature with the simple Pd(OAc)(2) salt as catalyst, whereas the reactions with Pd(OAc)(2) alone were very sluggish. The formation of a heterobimetallic Pd-II/Sc-III species has been proposed as the key species for the hydration that demonstrates a bimetallic synergistic effect in this process.