Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 15, 2026

Detection of Protein S-Acylation using Acyl-Resin Assisted Capture
Published on: April 10, 2020
Transamidation of N-acyl-glutarimides with amines
Yongmei Liu1, Marcel Achtenhagen, Ruzhang Liu
1College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yangzhou University, 180 Siwangting Road, Yangzhou 225002, China.
Abstract:
The development of new transamidation reactions for the synthesis of amides is an important and active area of research due to the central role of amide linkage in various fields of chemistry. Herein, we report a new method for transamidation of N-acyl-glutarimides with amines under mild, metal-free conditions that relies on amide bond twist to weaken amidic resonance. A wide range of amines and functional groups, including electrophilic substituents that would be problematic in metal-catalyzed protocols, are tolerated under the reaction conditions. Mechanistic experiments implicate the amide bond twist, thermodynamic stability of the tetrahedral intermediate and leaving group ability of glutarimide as factors controlling the reactivity of this process. The method further establishes the synthetic utility of N-acyl-glutarimides as bench-stable, twist-perpendicular, amide-based reagents in acyl-transfer reactions by a metal-free pathway. The origin of reactivity of N-acyl-glutarimides in metal-free and metal-catalyzed processes is discussed and compared.
Related Concept Videos
Amines to Amides: Acylation of Amines
Next, the second equivalent of amine serves as a Brønsted base and deprotonates the quaternary...
Preparation of Amines: Alkylation of Ammonia and Amines
Each alkylation step makes the nitrogen center more nucleophilic, which triggers successive alkylations until a quaternary ammonium salt is formed. Considering...
Preparation of Amines: Reductive Amination of Aldehydes and Ketones
Structure of Amines
Amines: Introduction
Nomenclature of Primary Amines

