A General and Efficient Heterogeneous Gold-Catalyzed Hydration of Nitriles in Neat Water under Mild Atmospheric Conditions

Mild, efficient and general: Titania decorated with nanometer‐sized gold particles acts as an efficient catalyst for the selective hydration of a wide range of chemically diverse nitriles into valuable amides in neutral water, under mild atmospheric conditions (see image). The process shows promise for a facile and direct one‐pot synthesis of ε‐caprolactam, an industrially important molecule, starting from 6‐aminocapronitrile.