The ketenimination of isocyanides: recent advances and future perspectives

Past decades have witnessed significant advances in the use of isocyanides as a class of versatile organic synthons, enabling the efficient and sustainable preparation of value-added nitrogen-containing heterocycles. In recent years, a major breakthrough in isocyanide chemistry has been the achievement of ketenimination of isocyanides. Currently, three types of keteniminations of isocyanides have been established, namely carbene-type ketenimination, elimination-type ketenimination, and addition-type ketenimination, providing novel routes to the assembly of nitrogen-containing heterocycles with further diversity, which convincingly demonstrates the high potential of this strategy for 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 researchers toward new horizons for isocyanide chemistry as well. In addition, future research directions for this specific field are also discussed.