Amidation via borate esters

09 May 2013 - Organic chemistry

Amidation_Lanigan_2013.svg.png Lanigan et al. report a new reagent for coupling an amine with a carboxylic acid to form an amide (DOI). The reagent is the borate ester of trifluoroethanol B(OCH2CF3)3 for which they offer a new recipe starting from boron trioxide.
The yield of the reaction with boron trioxide alone is poor, chirality is retained with protected amino acids.