Ma Ruyuan, Wang Yan-En, Xiong Dan, Mao Jianyou
Technical Institute of Fluorochemistry (TIF), State Key Laboratory of Materials Oriented Chemical Engineering (MCE), School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, 30 South Puzhu Road, Nanjing 211816, P. R. China.
College of Science, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding 071000, P. R. China.
Org Lett. 2023 Oct 20;25(41):7557-7561. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.3c02927. Epub 2023 Oct 11.
A tandem Madelung indole synthesis by the reaction of methyl benzoate and -methyl--toluidine has been discovered. The combination of LiN(SiMe) with CsF is the key factor, which secures the high efficiency of such tandem transformations. Simply combining methyl benzoate, -methyl--toluidine LiN(SiMe), and CsF generated a diverse array of -methyl-2-phenylindoles (31 examples, 50-90% yields). Furthermore, the scalability and the poststructural modifications of this indole synthesis were demonstrated.