Abstract
Commercially available molybdenum hexacarbonyl serves as a convenient and solid carbon monoxide source in palladium-catalyzed aminocarbonylations of aryl bromides and iodides. This improved microwave protocol, relying on DBU as base and THF as solvent, enables rapid couplings using otherwise sluggish anilines, tert-butylamine, and free amino acids. In addition, Cr(CO)6 and W(CO)6 were found to be useful alternative CO-releasing reagents. Altogether, 16 different aromatic amides were synthesized under air in 35−95% yield after only 15 min of controlled microwave irradiation.