Effect of the basic property of reactants (tertiary amine catalysts, a substrate amine, and acid neutralizers) on catalytic dehydrocondensation between a carboxylic acid and an amine by using 2-chloro-4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazine (CDMT) was studied. The reaction yield was affected by the acid-base equilibrium among reactants. In dichloromethane, a representative aprotic solvent, a strongly basic catalyst gave amides in higher yields than weakly basic catalysts, regardless of the basicity of the acid neutralizer, which is called the proton capture agent (PCA). In contrast, in protic solvents, such as methanol or aqueous methanol, weakly basic catalysts gave amides in somewhat better yields than the strongly basic catalysts. In general, PCAs with weakly basic properties are favorable, because those with strongly basic properties tend to give byproducts arising from the reaction between CDMT and the substrate amine.Key words amide; dehydrocondensation; 1,3,5-triazine; catalytic reaction; solvent effect Dehydrocondensation to form amides and esters is an essential tool for organic and medicinal chemists, and various dehydrocondensing reagents have been developed for the past several decades.1,2) Among them, 4-(4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-4-methylmorpholinium chloride (DMT-MM, Fig. 1), has proven to be useful because of its stability, reactivities, and low synthetic cost. [3][4][5] In particular, it selectively produces amides from carboxylic acids and amines even in alcoholic or aqueous media.6-8) Related triazine-based compounds, N- (4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)-N,N,N-trialkylammonium chloride (DMT-Ams), which consist of tertiary amines (tertamine) instead of N-methylmorpholine (NMM), have a similar reactivity for dehydrocondensation. [9][10][11][12] We found catalytic dehydrocondensation involving the in situ generation of DMT-Am from a stoichiometric amount of 2-chloro-4,6-dimethoxy-1,3,5-triazine (CDMT) and a catalytic amount of a tert-amine, as summarized in Chart 1. 13) In this system, the addition of a base, proton capture agent (PCA), 14) which is inert toward CDMT, is essential for the regeneration of the tert-amine from its hydrochloride.From this understanding, we have developed catalytic dehydrocondensing reactions using a tert-amine with a specific functional property, such as molecular recognition.13,15-19) As functionalized catalysts, we employed an N,N-dimethylglycine ester as a catalytic tert-amine part because of its facile introduction into functional molecules via the ester group and also because of its potent catalytic activity in a protic solvent. However, the details of the choice of catalytic tert-amine parts depending on the reaction conditions have not been described.Very recently, we have studied the structure-reactivity relationship of tert-amines reacting with CDMT for the generation of DMT-Am, and proposed the gauche β-alkyl group effect.12) This effect indicates that a steric environment around the nitrogen atom rather than the basicity of the tert-amines is predominantly c...