Synergistic Copper-Catalyzed Reductive Aminocarbonylation of Alkyl Iodides with Nitroarenes.

We have developed a Cu-catalyzed reductive aminocarbonylation of alkyl iodides using nitroarenes as the nitrogen source. The reaction proceeds with a single copper catalyst playing dual roles of synergistically mediating both carbonylation of alkyl iodides and reduction of nitroarenes, providing acyl iodides and anilines as possible reactive intermediates that then do amide coupling spontaneously. A diverse range of secondary N-aryl alkylamides are accessible from a variety of primary, secondary, and tertiary alkyl iodides using this method.