Iron-Catalyzed Carbamoylation of Enamides with Formamides as a Direct Approach to N-Acyl Enamine Amides

The robustness of iron catalysis enabling the oxidative coupling reactions of enamides with formamides is described. Routing from readily accessible feedstocks, the efficient approach is implemented to furnish a broad array of value-added N-acyl enamine amide derivatives, which serve as versatile precursors of biologically relevant N-heterocycles including pyrimidin-4-ones and 4-hydroxypyridin-2-ones. Preliminary mechanistic studies supported the notion that this direct carbamoylation reaction proceeded through an aminoacyl radical species.