Fine-tuning hydroxylamines as single-nitrogen sources for Pd(0)-catalyzed diamination of o-bromo(or chloro)-biaryls

Transition metal-catalyzed diamination by hydroxylamines is a common approach for making three-membered aziridines, while its use for building the larger N-heterocycles is still underdeveloped. Herein, we report an efficient Pd(0)-catalyzed inter-molecular [4+1] annulation of o-bromo(or chloro)-biaryls with bifunctional secondary hydroxylamines for the one-step assembly of synthetically useful carbazoles. Noteworthily, a linchpin for this domino reaction was the judicious selection of both the amino-sources and Pd(0)-catalysts for enabling the prerequisite oxidative addition of aryl halides to Pd(0)-species in the presence of hydroxylamines with a labile N-O bond.