base-metal-catalyzed dehydrogenative coupling of diols and amines to form cyclic imides is reported. The reaction is catalyzed by a pincercomplex of the earth abundant manganese and forms hydrogen gas as the sole byproduct, making the overall process atom economical and environmentallybenign.
A simple NaOMe catalyst provides superior accessibility to a wide variety of functionalized amides including peptides through direct amination of esters in an atom-economical and environmentally benign way.