“Ugi, Passerini and Multicomponent Reactions: A Journey Along Isocyanide Chemistry”

In the last 20 years, the field of isocyanide chemistry has been strongly influenced by the interest for multicomponent reactions (MCRs). Our group has approached this domain mainly with the goal of inventing new reactions through modifications of existing couplings. This has led us to introduce Smiles rearrangements in isocyanide based couplings (Ugi-Smiles and Passerini-Smiles,) 1, 2 or disclose new radical couplings of isocyanides with diazonium salts. 3 We have further used isocyanides based MCRs as tools to study new cascades involving radical cyclizations or palladium catalyzed processes.