Highly diastereoselective and regioselective copper-catalyzed nitrosoformate dearomatization reaction under aerobic-oxidation conditions.

An unprecedented copper-catalyzed acylnitroso dearomatization reaction, which expands the traditional acylnitroso ene reaction and acylnitroso Diels-Alder reaction to a new type of transformation, has been developed under aerobic oxidation. Intermolecular and intra-/intermolecular reaction modes demonstrate an entirely different N- or O-acylnitroso selectivity. Hence, we can utilize this reaction as a highly diastereoselective access to a series of new pyrroloindoline derivatives, which are important structural motifs for natural-product synthesis.