Automated and Parallel Amide Synthesis

Abstract

Amide bonds are ubiquitous in molecules of interest such as pharmaceuticals, natural products, and agrochemicals. Over the last decades, significant efforts have been directed at developing efficient methods for the formation of this class of chemical bonds. Herein, we disclose a robust, user-friendly approach for the efficient and rapid parallel synthesis of amide-containing compounds, in good yield and purity. Our approach utilizes automated synthesis technologies and pre-packed capsules containing all the necessary materials for the reaction and work-up. Following manual addition of the amine and carboxylic acid, the reaction and product isolation is achieved automatically in a standardized, integrated manner. This methodology tolerates a wide diversity of carboxylic acids and amines (or amine salts). To accelerate discovery and rapidly create amide-containing compound libraries, the method was miniaturized into an automated parallel synthesis format, using 96-well plate kits, which could be beneficial to medicinal chemists.