Synthesis, characterization and mechanistic studies of an activated carbon-supported nickel (Ni/C) catalyst for the effective amidation of aldehydes†

A novel reusable activated carbon-supported nickel (Ni/C) catalyst was prepared, characterized and used as a heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of amide compounds through the amidation of aldehydes with amines. Mechanistic studies were also performed. This heterogeneous catalyst was reusable and could be employed three times without any notable degradation in its catalytic efficacy. Mechanistic studies showed that the catalytic approach efficiently activated both the carbonyl group and the N–H bond. In addition, Gaussian 16 software was employed to perform density functional theory (DFT) calculations to determine the interactions between the hydrogen and nickel in the transition state and the energy of the transition complexes in the reactions.