Reduction of Amides

Reduction of Amides

Amides can also be reduced to amines. Treatment of an amide with lithium aluminium hydride, followed by aqueous work-up, converts the carbonyl carbon of the amide into a $-\text{CH}_2-$ group and yields the corresponding amine:

$\text{R}-\overset{\displaystyle \overset{\text{O}}{\Vert}}{\text{C}}-\text{NH}_2 \xrightarrow[\text{(ii) H}_2\text{O}]{\text{(i) LiAlH}_4} \text{R}-\text{CH}_2-\text{NH}_2$ …