Discovery and mechanistic study of AlIII-catalyzed transamidation of tertiary amides

Cleavage of the C-N bond of carboxamides generally requires harsh conditions. This study reveals that tris(amido)Al-III catalysts, such as Al-2(NMe2)(6), promote facile equilibrium-controlled transamidation of tertiary carboxamides with secondary amines. The mechanism of these reactions was investigated by kinetic, spectroscopic, and density functional theory (DFT) computational methods. The catalyst resting state consists of an equilibrium mixture of a tris(amido)Al-III dimer and a monomeric tris(amido)Al-III-carboxamide adduct, and the turnover-limiting step involves intramolecular nucleophilic attack of an amido ligand on the coordinated carboxamide or subsequent rearrangement (intramolecular ligand substitution) of the tetrahedral intermediate. Fundamental mechanistic differences between these tertiary transamidation reactions and previously characterized transamidations involving secondary amides and primary amines suggest that tertiary amide/secondary amine systems are particularly promising for future development of metal-catalyzed amide metathesis reactions that proceed via transamidation.