Iron-promoted one-pot approach: Synthesis of isothiocyanates

We have established a facile and versatile synthesis for the construction of isothiocyanates from their respective amines in the presence of an eco-friendly, inexpensive, easily available Iron catalyst under mild conditions. This reaction provides the target products through the formation of thiocarbamate salt as an intermediate. Both aromatic amines and aliphatic amines provided the respective target products in moderate to high yield under optimized reaction conditions. However, electron withdrawing substituents were difficult to give target product at room temperature, whereas, they obtained final products in good yield at moderate temperature. In addition, mechanistic studies were revealed that the synthetic route involved iron based subsequent reactions of addition and removal of sulfur.