Benign Synthesis of Indoles from Anilines and Epoxides: New Application for Ruthenium Pincer Catalysts

Authors

  • Angèle Monney Leibniz-Institut für Katalyse e.V. an der Universität, Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 29a, D-18059 Rostock, Germany
  • Miguel Peña-López Leibniz-Institut für Katalyse e.V. an der Universität, Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 29a, D-18059 Rostock, Germany
  • Matthias Beller Leibniz-Institut für Katalyse e.V. an der Universität, Rostock, Albert-Einstein-Strasse 29a, D-18059 Rostock, Germany. matthias.beller@catalysis.de

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2533/chimia.2014.231

Keywords:

Alcohol dehydrogenative activation, Anilines and epoxides, Indole synthesis, Ru-macho-bh, Ruthenium pincer catalyst

Abstract

For the first time, ruthenium pincer complexes such as Ru-MACHO-BH were successfully used as catalysts in the domino-synthesis of indoles from anilines and epoxides. Following previously optimised procedures, a variety of indoles were produced in an atom-efficient manner with water and hydrogen as the only stoichiometric side-products. The ?-amino alcohol, resulting from the ring-opening of the epoxide with the aniline derivative, undergoes dehydrogenation, followed by condensation with excess aniline and the final intramolecular cyclisation affords the desired indole. Ru-MACHO-BH showed similar catalytic activity than our previously reported in situ prepared catalyst (Ru3(CO)12/dppf) without further optimisation of the reaction conditions.

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Published

2014-04-30

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