Preparation and Reactions of Indoleninyl Halides: Scaffolds for the Synthesis of Spirocyclic Indole Derivatives.

The dearomatization of 2-haloindole precursors allows access to indoleninyl halides, a hitherto underexploited functional handle with broad synthetic utility. Indoleninyl iodides have been shown to react via three distinct modes: hydrolysis, nucleophilic substitution, and cross-coupling. This allows a broad array of functionalized spirocyclic indole derivatives to be generated from a common starting material. They are also useful precursors to functionalized quinolines following migratory rearrangement and subsequent derivatization reactions.