Ritter reactions of alcohols and tert-butyl acetate with various nitriles were performed using iodine as a mild and effective catalyst under heating conditions to afford the corresponding amides in good to excellent yields.
A straightforward strategy for direct benzylic C–H bond amination via an electrochemical Ritter-type reaction is developed. The reaction demonstrates simpler and milder reaction conditions over the existing methods without extra mediator. Moderate to excellent yields up to 94% of the desired amide products were obtained with a broad substrate scope. The removal of the Ac group by a simple step can