Chemoselective metal-free indole arylation with cyclohexanones

Abstract

Herein, we have revealed elemental sulfur- and iodine reagent-mediated indole C3 arylations using cyclohexanones as the arylating reagent. This protocol provides an efficient gram-scalable access to 3-arylindole and benzo[4,5]thieno[2,3-b]indole motifs with a broad range of compatible functionalities.