Primary amides to amines or nitriles: a dual role by a single catalyst

We report a manganese-catalyzed hydrosilylative reduction of various primary amides to amines (25 examples). On simple modification of the reaction conditions such as in the presence of a catalytic amount of secondary amide, the same catalyst can transform the primary amides into intermediate nitrile compounds (16 examples) in excellent yields. This is the first example where such a controlled catalytic transformation of primary amides to amines or nitriles with a single catalyst has been demonstrated. We report the first earth abundant single mononuclear Mn( iii ) complex which can selectively and catalytically transform primary amides to nitriles as well as reduce primary amides to amines.