Preparation of vinylogous 2-sulfonylindolines by the palladium-catalyzed heteroannulation of o-iodoanilines with dienyl sulfones and their further transformation to indoles and carbazoles.

The palladium-catalyzed heteroannulation of o-iodoanilines with dienyl sulfones provides a convenient route to vinylogous 2-sulfonylindolines 3. The reaction proceeds in DMF/water in the presence of potassium carbonate and catalytic palladium(II) acetate and is compatible with both electron-donating and -withdrawing substituents in the para position of the aniline, and with an alkyl substituent at C-2 of the dienyl sulfone. The indolines underwent oxidation with DDQ to afford the corresponding indoles 4. The latter were then employed as dienes in Diels-Alder reactions with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate (DMAD), methyl propiolate, or methyl acrylate. In the case of the latter two dienophiles, the cycloadditions were highly regioselective, affording the corresponding 1,3-products (with respect to the relative positions of the sulfone and ester groups), exclusively. The cycloadducts from acetylenic dienophiles were converted to the corresponding carbazoles by elimination of the sulfone moiety with DBU, and that from methyl acrylate was subjected to reductive desulfonylation and oxidation to the corresponding carbazole with DDQ. The method thus provides access to carbazoles with various substituents at the 3-, 4-, and 6-positions.