Palladium-catalyzed domino carbonylative cyclization to access functionalized heterocycles

A novel palladium-catalyzed domino carbonylative cyclization of alkene-tethered indole derivatives with alkyne-tethered nucleophiles has been developed, which provides a straightforward and efficient platform for the rapid construction of functionalized heterocycles. By using benzene-1,3,5-triyl triformate (TFBen) as the CO source, this domino reaction proceeded smoothly with the consecutive formation of three CC bonds and one C-X bond to furnish a variety of biologically relevant indolo[2,1-a]isoquinoline-indole and indolo[2,1-a]isoquinoline-dihydrobenzofuran derivatives in good yields.