A Palladium-Catalyzed Carbonylative Cross-Coupling Route to Imidazolones

Significance

Reported is the one-pot synthesis of diaryl- and triaryl-substituted imidazolones by reaction of readily available chloroformates, imines, carbon monoxide, and stannanes under Pd-catalyzed conditions. The procedure was developed incrementally and a catalytic cycle for the carbonylative cross-coupling is proposed. Although the reaction technically has two steps, these both occur in the same reaction vessel.