Facile Synthesis of Nitriles and Amides from Aldehyde over Heterogeneous Reusable Copper Fluorapatite (CuFAP) Catalyst under Neat Reaction Condition

A new robust heterogeneous, versatile, an environmentally benign, eco-friendly, recyclable CuFAP catalyst has been developed for the direct synthesis of nitriles and amides from aldehydes at 100°C for 6 h and 4 h, respectively, under neat reaction condition using hydroxylamine hydrochloride in the presence and the absence of tosyl chloride, respectively. Also the recyclability of catalyst as well as influence of solvents, additives on catalysts performance was investigated. The protocol can be considered as an alternative to conventional method for the synthesis of nitriles and amides in good to excellent yields. A highlight of our protocol is the easy separation of catalyst from reaction mixture, hence the catalyst is reused several times without significant loss of its catalytic activity.