The hydration of nitriles catalyzed by simple transition metal salt of the fourth period with the aid of acetaldoxime

We describe here a method for selective hydration of nitriles into the corresponding amides by employing commercially available acetaldoxime and simple transition metal catalysts such as nickel salts, zinc salts, cobalt salts and manganese salts in water. Nickel salts show the highest catalytic activity, owing to their relatively small diameter of the metal cation. Nitriles having electron-withdrawing groups could be converted into the corresponding amides in excellent yields using nickel catalyst at room temperature. Heterocyclic nitriles with heteroatom lone pair positioned ortho to the nitrile group show high reactivity; even these special nitriles could be hydrated by transition metal catalyst and water at refluxing temperature in the absence of acetaldoxime. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.