Indirect C-H azidation of heterocycles via copper-catalyzed regioselective fragmentation of unsymmetrical λ3-iodanes.

A C-H bond of electron-rich heterocycles is transformed into a C-N bond in a reaction sequence comprising the formation of heteroaryl(phenyl)iodonium azides and their in situ regioselective fragmentation to heteroaryl azides. A Cu(I) catalyst ensures complete regiocontrol in the fragmentation step and catalyzes the subsequent 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of the formed azido heterocycles with acetylenes. The heteroaryl azides can also be conveniently reduced to heteroarylamines by aqueous ammonium sulfide. The overall C-H to C-N transformation is a mild and operationally simple one-pot sequential multistep process.