Angewandte
Chemie
DOI: 10.1002/anie.200902802
À
C H Alkenylation
Palladium(II)-Catalyzed Regioselective Direct C2 Alkenylation of
Indoles and Pyrroles Assisted by the N-(2-Pyridyl)sulfonyl Protecting
Group**
Alfonso Garcꢀa-Rubia, Ramꢁn Gꢁmez Arrayꢂs,* and Juan C. Carretero*
Driven by its synthetic power and environmental friendliness,
both the alkene component and directing group. To date, only
monosubstituted electrophilic alkenes (mainly acrylates)
have been applied in the C2 alkenylation of indoles, except
for one isolated example of coupling with styrene.[7c] We
disclose herein a highly efficient and structurally versatile
palladium(II)-catalyzed C2 alkenylation of indoles and pyr-
roles employing the easily installed and removed N-(2-
pyridyl)sulfonyl directing group.[11]
À
C C bond-forming reactions through catalytic activation of
[1]
À
Csp2 H bonds constitutes a hot area of research. Since the
pioneering work by Murai et al.[2] and Fujiwara and co-
workers,[3] remarkable progress has been made in this field,
with palladium occupying a prevalent position.[4] Most of
these procedures rely on the use of a coordinating function-
ality that aids in the transition metal mediated functionaliza-
À
tion of a proximal C H bond. However, from a synthetic
Given the electrophilic nature of the palladium(II) center,
our first challenge was to find an N-protecting group for the
C2 functionalization of indole instead of the more nucleo-
philic C3-position. A set of potential directing groups were
examined in the reaction of derivatives 2–7 with methyl
acrylate under [Pd(CH3CN)2Cl2] catalysis (10 mol%) using
Cu(OAc)2·H2O (1 equiv) as an oxidant in DMA at 1108C
(Table 1).[12] Not unexpectedly, under such conditions the
indole 1 cleanly underwent C3 alkenylation with complete
regiocontrol (Table 1, entry 1).[7b,c,9] In contrast, the Boc-
protected derivative 2 led to a 68:32 mixture of C2/C3
alkenylation products, in very low conversion (Table 1,
entry 2). Both C2 regioselectivity and conversion were
enhanced by switching to a Ts group (Table 1, entry 3) or a
p-Ns group (Table 1, entry 4), albeit at an unpractical level. N-
Heteroarylsulfonyl groups strongly influenced the reactivity
and regiocontrol. For example, the N-(2-thienyl)sulfonyl
group in 5 led to low conversion and no regiocontrol
viewpoint, the practicality of the directing groups can be
compromised when the target molecule does not contain such
functionality. Therefore, the discovery of efficient and remov-
able directing groups is in high demand.[5]
Owing to the prevalence of the indole unit in pharma-
ceuticals and bioactive natural products, its regioselective C
H functionalization represents an important challenge in this
area. In contrast to the much more developed C H arylation
À
À
reactions,[6] direct alkenylations have received much less
attention.[7–10] A particularly challenging transformation is the
intermolecular direct alkenylation at the C2-position, for
which only three protocols have been reported.[7] Ricci and
co-workers reported the palladium(II)-catalyzed regiocon-
trolled C2 alkenylation of indole directed by a nonremovable
N-2-pyridylmethyl group.[7a] Gaunt and co-workers described
a practical method for the palladium(II)-catalyzed alkenyla-
tion of indoles (without an N-protecting group) in which the
regioselectivity can be switched from C3 to C2 by varying the
nature of the solvent and additives.[7b] However, decreased
reaction yield was found in C2 alkenylation. Miura, Satoh
Table 1: Effect of N-substitution in the C2 alkenylation of indole with
methyl acrylate.
À
et al. disclosed the palladium(II)-catalyzed C H alkenyla-
tion/decarboxylation of indole-3-carboxylic acids to afford
exclusively 2-alkenyl indoles, where the carboxyl group
blocks the C3-position and acts as a removable directing
group.[7c] Despite these important advances there is room for
innovation, both in increasing the efficiency of the reaction
and in improving the current limited scope with regard to
Entry Indole
Product C2/C3[a]
Yield [%][b]
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
1: R=H
2: R=Boc
3: R=Ts
4: R=p-Ns
5: R=(2-thienyl)SO2-
6: R=(8-quinolyl)SO2- 14
7: R=(2-pyridyl)SO2-
8: R=(3-pyridyl)SO2-
9
<2:>98[c] 75 (66)[c]
10
11
12
13
68:32
87:13
85:15
10
45 (30)
28
[*] A. Garcꢀa-Rubia, Dr. R. G. Arrayꢁs, Prof. Dr. J. C. Carretero
Departamento de Quꢀmica Orgꢁnica, Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad Autꢂnoma de Madrid (UAM)
Cantoblanco 28049 Madrid (Spain)
50:50
18
79:21
70 (50)
100 (75)
27
15
16
>98:<2
76:24
E-mail: ramon.gomez@uam.es
[a] Determined by 1H NMR methods from the reaction mixture. [b] Con-
version yield (1H NMR) of C2-alkenylation product. In parenthesis, yield
of product isolated after chromatography (regioisomeric mixtures could
[**] This work was supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaciꢂn
(MICINN, project CTQ2006-01121). A.G.-R. thanks the MICINN for
a predoctoral fellowship.
À
not be separated). [c] In the C3 H alkenylation product. Boc=tert-
Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW
butoxycarbonyl, Ts=para-toluenesulfonyl, p-Ns=para-nitrobenzenesul-
fonyl.
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 6511 –6515
ꢀ 2009 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
6511