Accessing Heteroannular Benzoxazole and Benzimidazole Scaffolds via Carbodiimides Using Azide–Isocyanide Cross-Coupling as Catalyzed by Mesoionic Singlet Palladium Carbene Complexes Derived from a Phenothiazine Moiety

The coupling of aryl and aliphatic azides with isocyanides yielding carbodiimides (8–17) were efficiently catalyzed by well-defined structurally characterized trans-(MIC)PdI2(L) [MIC = 1-CH2Ph-3-Me-4-(CH2N(C6H4)2S)-1,2,3-triazol-5-ylidene, L = NC5H5 (4), MesNC (5)], trans-(MIC)2PdI2 (6), and cis-(MIC)Pd(PPh3)I2 (7) type palladium complexes, which incidentally mark the first instances of the use of mesoionic singlet palladium carbene complexes for the said application. As observed from the product yields, the catalytic activity varied in the order 4 > 5 ∼ 6 > 7 for these complexes. A detailed mechanistic studies indicated that the catalysis proceeded via a palladium(0) (4a–7a) species. Using a representative palladium precatalyst (4), the azide–isocyanide coupling was successfully extended to synthesizing two different bioactive heteroannular benzoxazole (18–22) and benzimidazole (23–27) derivatives, thereby broadening the scope of the catalytic application.