The Ketenimination of Isocyanides: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

Abstract

Past decades have witnessed significant advance of isocyanides as a class of versatile organic synthons, enabling the efficient and sustainable preparation of value-added nitrogen-containing heterocycles. In recent years, the great breakthrough of isocyanide chemistry is achieving the ketenimination of isocyanides. Currently, three types of keteniminations of isocyanides have been established, namely the carbene-type ketenimination, the elimination-type ketenimination, and the addition-type ketenimination, providing a novel route to assemble nitrogen-containing heterocycles with further diversity, which will convincingly demonstrate the high potential of this strategy in drug discovery, organic synthesis, and materials science. This review focuses on advances in the ketenimination of isocyanides with emphasis on reaction scopes, limitations, and mechanisms, which will provide a comprehensive perspective on the area, and steer to a new horizon for isocyanide chemistry as well. In addition, the future research directions of this specific field are also discussed.