Jonathan G. Varelas, Satyam Khanal, Michael A O'Donnell
Oct 23, 2015
Citations
0
Influential Citations
17
Citations
Journal
Organic letters
Abstract
The synthesis of pyridines bearing multiple ring fusions poses a considerable challenge for organic chemists. To address this problem, we describe the synthesis of a small library of pyrido[3,4-b]indoles via an efficient, five-step sequence. The key transformation is a Rh(I)-catalyzed [2 + 2 + 2] cyclization that forms three rings in one reaction flask. Our method is high yielding, accommodates a variety of functional groups, and suffers no entropic costs as ring size increases.