In Situ Activation of Disulfides for Multicomponent Reactions with Isocyanides and a Broad Range of Nucleophiles

Activation of disulfides with N-halogen succinimide in the presence of TEMPO allows insertion reaction by an isocyanide, the product of which can further accept a wide range of nucleophiles for the generation of isothioureas and related molecular moieties. This new procedure overcomes previous methods that accept essentially only aryl amines as the third nucleophilic component. The diverse nucleophiles usable in our new protocol make this approach a general method for de novo synthesis of many S-containing heterocycles.