Cooperative Lewis Acid/Cp*CoIII Catalyzed C−H Bond Activation for the Synthesis of Isoquinolin‐3‐ones

A facile route toward the synthesis of isoquinolin-3-ones through a cooperative B(C6 F5 )3 - and Cp*Co(III) -catalyzed C-H bond activation of imines with diazo compounds is presented. The inclusion of a catalytic amount of B(C6 F5 )3 results in a highly efficient reaction, thus enabling unstable NH imines to serve as substrates.