Dehydration of Amides with Hydrotalcite-Supported Vanadium Catalyst

Significance

Monomeric vanadium oxide supported on hydrotalcite (V/HT) was prepared by treatment of VCl₃ with hydrotalcite in water (eq. 1). V/HT catalyzed the dehydration of amides in ­mesitylene under reflux conditions to give the ­corresponding nitriles in 50 to >99% yield (16 examples, eq. 2). In the dehydration of ortho-toluamide, the catalyst was recovered by simple filtration and reused twice without significant loss of activity.