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Conversion of nitriles to amides

  • Page ID
    5367
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    Nitriles can be converted to amides. This reaction can be acid or base catalyzed. In the case of acid catalysis the nitrile becomes protonated. Protonation increases the electrophilicity of the nitrile so that it will accept water, a poor nucleophile.

    General reaction

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    Example

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    Mechanism

    1) Protonation

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    2) Nucleophilic attack by water

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    3) Proton Transfer

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    4) Resonance

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    5) Deprotonation

    Contributors


    Conversion of nitriles to amides is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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