Method for converting amides to nitriles and nitriles to amides

A process which comprises contacting and catalytically reacting under essentially anhydrous conditions in the liquid phase an amide with a nitrile according to the equation:

• RCONH.sub.2 +R.sup.1 CN.revreaction.RCN+R.sup.1 CONH.sub.2
• where R and R.sup.1 are not the same and are each selected from
• (1) H, hydrocarbyl, a hydrocarbyl group substituted with:
• one or more of F, Cl, Br, I, amido, cyano, formyl, hydrocarbylcarbonyl, hydrocarbyloxy, hydrocarbyloxycarbonyl, hydrocarbylcarbonyloxy and dihydrocarbylamino, and
• (2) any of group (1) where one or more H atoms are substituted by a deuterium atom,
• said contacting and reaction being effected in the presence of a catalyst with the formula
• M.sub.m X.sub.a L.sub.b
• where M is selected from Pd and Pt, X contains zero to 10 C atoms, is selected from halogen, H, O, --CO, acyloxy, trihaloacetyloxy, hydroxy, dialkylamino, thio, thioacyl, nitro, tetraalkylboron and tetraalkylaluminum;
• where m is 1 or 2, a is zero, 2 or 4, and b is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 6;
• when m=1 and a=zero, b is 2, 3 or 4;
• when m is 1 and a is 2, b is zero or an integer from 1 to 4;
• when m is 1 and a is 4, b is 4 or 6;
• when m is 2, a+b are a total of 6;
• where L has the formula TR.sup.2.sub.n, where T is selected from B, N, P, Bi, Al, As, Sb, Li, Na, K, Rb and Cs;
• each R.sup.2 is the same or different, contains zero to 10 C atoms and is independently selected from H, halogen, nitro, trihalomethyl, acyl, acyloxy, acylthio, hydrocarbyl, hydrocarbyloxy and dihydrocarbylamino;
• and if T is alkali metal, n is zero;
• if T is not alkali metal, n is 3 or 4;
• with the proviso that the catalyst can optionally additionally contain as a modifier a compound ZR.sup.2.sub.c where Z is selected from B, N, P, Bi, Al, As and Sb;
• R.sup.2 is as before defined and c is a number selected to satisfy the valence requirements of Z.