Homogeneous catalyst for nitrile hydrolysis

Submitted by Adrian Parkins

Licensing opportunity

Katamid Ltd. is a chemical consultancy which was spun out from King's College London.  The company has developed a homogeneous catalyst which catalyses the hydrolysis of nitriles to amides under neutral conditions in very high yield and typically in aqueous ethanol or tetrahydrofuran.

There has been a considerable interest in the enzymatic hydrolysis in recent years, but use of the relatively small chemical catalyst developed by Katamid can be advantageous in large molecules which cannot reach the active site of an enzyme. Examples of the use of the catalyst with a wide range of nitriles and carried out by Katamid or by many others are available.