Montmorillonite‐K10‐Catalyzed Microwave‐Assisted Direct Amidation of Unactivated Carboxylic Acids with Amines: Maintaining Chiral Integrity of Substrates

A microwave assisted, selective and green methodology has been developed for the direct amidation of carboxylic acids with amines using montmorillonite K10 as a heterogeneous catalyst. This is the first report for transition metal free, montmorillonite K10 catalyzed efficient and direct amidation of carboxylic acids. This method is well compatible with sterically hindered α-branched, aliphatic, benzylic, aromatic, unsaturated and conjugated carboxylic acids. During exploring the substrate scope, we surprisingly found that chiral integrity of substrates were unchanged after the reaction.