An azobenzene-containing metal-organic framework as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for direct amidation of benzoic acids: synthesis of bioactive compounds.

An azobenzene-containing zirconium metal-organic framework was demonstrated to be an effective heterogeneous catalyst for the direct amidation of benzoic acids in tetrahydrofuran at 70 °C. This finding was applied to the synthesis of several important, representative bioactive compounds.