Amide bond formation between substances located in two immiscible liquid phases without phase-transfer catalyst

Abstract

Effectively amide bond construction between substances located in two immiscible liquids is a key point in the covalent-combination of the two parts with totally different characters. Herein, we demonstrated that aminolysis reactions between substances located in two immiscible solutions can be promoted in microdroplets without phase transfer catalyst, leading to amide bond formation products. Furthermore, in the biphasic reaction of microdroplets, size of the hydrophobic group and length of the alkyl chain in an activated ester may also affect a lot on the aminolysis reaction. This result will provide us a further insight on interfacial microdroplet reaction between substances located in two immiscible liquid phases and a new approach for ligation of two substances with totally different properties.