Highly Chemo‐ and Regioselective Transfer Reduction of Aromatic Nitro Compounds using Ammonium Formate Catalyzed by Supported Gold Nanoparticles

A highly chemo‐ and regioselective reduction of a wide diversity of aromatic nitro compounds to the corresponding amines has been achieved by a combination of gold nanoparticles supported on titania and ammonium formate (HCOONH4) in ethanol at room temperature. Furthermore, a direct and mild route to formanilides from aromatic nitro compounds bearing different functional groups by reductive N‐formylation using the gold‐mediated transfer reduction protocol is also established.