▎ 摘　　要

The present study is the first report of an atom economical and environmentally benign amidation of unactivated esters wherein a novel and highly versatile graphene oxide based cobalt nanocatalytic system has been effectively exploited for the synthesis of pharmaceutically significant amide derivatives under neutral reaction conditions. Experimental results revealed that the developed catalyst not only possesses immense potential to accelerate ester amide exchange reaction in the absence of any additives but also exhibits several remarkable attributes like wide functional group tolerance, durability, high turnover numbers, improved yield, and recycling and reusability for subsequent runs without any discernible loss in the catalytic activity. The enhanced catalytic performance may be attributed to the structure of 2-D graphene oxide based material which provides space between graphitic overlayers and metal surfaces making it work like a nanoreactor to expedite ester amide exchange reaction.