Synthesis 2019; 51(17): 3214-3220
DOI: 10.1055/s-0037-1611535
paper
© Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York

Photoredox Fischer Indole Synthesis

Atsushi Kaga
a   Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan   Email: kitamura@os.rcms.nagoya-u.ac.jp
,
Tomohiro Fukushima
b   Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Hokkaido University, North 10 West 8, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0810, Japan
,
c   Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan   Email: shimokawa@kuchem.kyoto-u.ac.jp
,
Masato Kitamura*
a   Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan   Email: kitamura@os.rcms.nagoya-u.ac.jp
› Author Affiliations
This work was supported by the Kato Memorial Bioscience Foundation, a Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Award in Synthetic Organic Chemistry, Japan, JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 23590003, 25221301, 15H05641, the Platform for Drug Discovery, Informatics, and Structural Life Science from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, and the Advanced Catalytic Transformation Program for Carbon Utilization (ACT-C) from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST).
Further Information

Publication History

Received: 25 February 2019

Accepted after revision: 16 April 2019

Publication Date:
09 May 2019 (online)


Abstract

Visible light photoredox conditions were applied to the traditional Fischer indole synthesis. N,N-Diarylhydrazones were efficiently converted into the corresponding indoles even at 30 °C by treatment with bromotrichloromethane in the presence of Ru(bpy)3Cl2·6H2O as the photocatalyst. Electrochemical study revealed the viability of oxidative quenching cycle for the photocatalysis, which set the basis for proposing the redox-based reaction mechanism.

Supporting Information