A palladium-catalyzed three-component coupling of aryl bromides, alkynes, and anthranils has been developed for the direct and efficient synthesis of ortho carbonyl-substituted N-aryl indoles featuring a C-N chiral axis. Anthranil serves as an aryl nitrene precursor in this reaction, facilitating the expedient conversion of C,C-palladacycles into N-aryl indoles through sequential C-N bond formation. The in situ generated ortho carbonyl group within the product structure can be conveniently transformed into other functionalities, thereby enhancing the synthetic utility of this methodology.
Chen et al. (Sun,) studied this question.