Zhi-Lin Ren, Ke-Ji Li, Cheng-Cheng Ding, Shan-Shan Liu, Peng Yang, Ying-Min Liu, You Zhou, Zi-Qiang Wang, Ping He, Long Wang
The study reports a Pd-catalyzed chemoselective sequential isocyanide insertion at sp3- and sp2-carbon centers, which enables the controlled incorporation of two or four isocyanide units. This cascade process, derived from readily accessible Passerini adducts, provides a divergent platform for the rapid assembly of diverse N- and O-containing heterocycles. The strategy overcomes the limitations of single-site reactions and offers high selectivity and structural complexity in heterocycle synthesis.