A palladium-catalyzed cyclization and carbonylation of N-propargylamides with amines has been developed, which incorporates an amide unit into 3,4-dihydroisoquinolin-1(2H)-one scaffolds. By using benzene-1,3,5-triyl triformate (TFBen) as the safe and convenient CO source, the reaction proceeded smoothly to afford a variety of amide-containing 3,4-dihydroisoquinolin-1(2H)-one derivatives in high yields.
Chen et al. (2025) studied this question.