N-hydroxyimides as efficient ligands for the copper-catalyzed N-arylation of pyrrole, imidazole, and indole.

An experimentally simple, efficient, and inexpensive catalyst system was developed for the N-arylation of pyrroles, indoles, and imidazole with aryl and heteroaryl iodides, bromides, and chlorides by applying CuI as catalyst, N-hydroxysuccinimide (L1), N-hydroxymaleimide (L2), or N-hydroxyphthalimide (L3) as ligand, CH3ONa as base, and DMSO as solvent. A variety of functional groups are tolerated in the reaction, including those that are not compatible with Pd-catalyzed amidation methodology.