Direct hydrogenation of nitroarenes and one-pot amidation using formic acid over heterogeneous palladium catalysts

A highly chemoselective reduction of a wide diversity of aromatic nitro compounds to the corresponding amines have been achieved by a combination of Pd catalysts and HCOOH in ethanol under mild conditions. Moreover, a direct route to formanilides and benzimidazole derivatives from aromatic nitro compound bearing different functional groups has been established by using Pd/C catalyst and HCOOH.