Converting Amides into Esters: A Survey of Metal-Mediated and Metal-Free Logics

Amides are a common functional group which can be found in a variety of organic and inorganic compounds, including proteins, pharmaceuticals, bioactive natural products, and polymers. Due to resonance stability, the carbon-nitrogen bond in amides is difficult to break selectively, making amide esterification hard. New advances in metal-catalyzed esterification and metal-free procedures have enabled the development of novel amide-to-ester conversion strategies. The aim of this work is to present a survey of the most significant approaches. The latter have made it possible to synthesize esters from a wide variety of amides under mild conditions, with good yields and good functional group tolerance opening doors to the discovery of new amide transformations with wide-ranging implications in organic synthesis.