Copper Catalyzed Oxidative C–C Bond Cleavage of 1,2-Diketones: A Divergent Approach to 1,8-Naphthalimides, Biphenyl-2,2′-dicarboxamides, and N‑Heterocyclic Amides

We report here a simple and efficient copper catalyzed oxidative C–C bond cleavage of stable aromatic cyclic-fused and acyclic 1,2-diketones to deliver amides and imides in high yields. This newly developed protocol provides an excellent tool to transform structurally different 1,2-diketones into different products under the same reaction conditions. The key synthetic features of this methodology are the formation of 1,8-naphthalimides and biphenyl-2,2′-dicarboxamide motifs in high yields. The fluorescent studies of 1,8-naphthalimide derivatives were also carried out in order to show the potential application of these scaffolds.