1 Direct amide bond formation from carboxylic acids and amines using activated alumina balls as a new, convenient, clean, reusable and low cost heterogeneous catalyst Sabari Ghosh, Asim Bhaumik, John Mondal, Amit Mallik, Sumita Sengupta (Bandyopadhyay) and Chhanda Mukhopadhyay* Supplementary Information Part 1 1. SEM image of the whole alumina ball page 2 2. SEM images of an activated alumina ball before calcination and after calcination at 120 °C, 400 °C and 700 °C page 2 3. Change in particle size aggregates with increase in calcination temperature of the activated alumina ball catalyst page 3 4. EDS X‐ray spectrum of an activated alumina ball page 3 5. Quantitative results of the EDS X‐ray spectrum of an activated alumina ball page 3 6. Discussion on compounds 3ab and 3ac page 4 7. Calculation of green metrics page 5 8. Enlarged SEM images page 6 Electronic Supplementary Material (ESI) for Green Chemistry This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012