S_NAr Isocyanide Diversification

Isocyanides are important building blocks in organic synthesis; however, their synthesis is time and resource consuming and often unpleasant due to their smelly nature. Diversification of isocyanides can be accomplished by de novo synthesis or from already existing isocyanides. In this work, we report for the first-time isocyanide diversification based on nucleophilic aromatic substitution of suitable precursor isocyanides. The mild conditions allow for easy access to multiple novel isocyanides useful in organic synthesis. The resulting isocyanides are solid and non-noxious, yet react nicely in multicomponent reactions.