Metal-catalyzed amide bond forming reactions in an environmentally friendly aqueous medium: nitrile hydrations and beyond

Amides are versatile building blocks in synthetic organic chemistry, presenting a wide range of pharmacological applications, and are used as raw materials in industry for the large-scale production of engineering plastics, detergents and lubricants. The development of green procedures for the synthesis of this relevant class of compounds from various starting materials, which replace antiquated methods using carboxylic acid derivatives and amines, is therefore of prime interest in modern chemistry. In this review article, a survey of metal-catalyzed synthetic approaches of amides conducted in an environmentally friendly aqueous medium is given.