Nitroarenes as the Nitrogen Source in Intermolecular Palladium-Catalyzed Aryl C-H Bond Aminocarbonylation Reactions

A three-component palladium-catalyzed aminocarbonylation of aryl and heteroaryl sp² C-H bonds using nitroarenes as the nitrogen source was achieved using Mo(CO)₆ as the reductant and origin of the CO. This intermolecular C-H bond functionalization does not requires any exogenous ligand to be added, and our mechanism experiments indicate that the palladacycle catalyst serves two roles in the aminocarbonylation reaction: reduce the nitroarene to a nitrosoarene and activate the sp² C-H bond.