How disappointing that it only works with anilines.
I don’t know how I managed to miss the patent. I searched for “boric acid” instead of “boron”, but I also searched for the company name and still missed it.
Saddam, thanks for listing the alternatives. I’m aware of the coupling agents and some other methods, but I was hoping this would bee a cheap and simple one-step OTC amidation method. I also know that some ammonia salts, like ammonium formate or acetate, dehydrate to their amides on heating. But, for example, if you would want to transform a more complex acid like 3-indolyl-acetic acid into its diethylamide, you would have to go trough the amonolysis of the methyl ester which is two steps (at least those of us who don’t have DCC or other coupling reagents). In such cases this method would be very cool if it would work.
Just a thought caused by the Saddam’s equation using B(NR
2)
3 as a reagent: I have some sulfamidic acid (H
2N-SO
3H). Is there any known method for this reagent to transform acids to amides?