Base‐Mediated Direct Arylation of Pyrrole Derivatives

It appears that transition metal catalysts are not necessary to perform the direct arylation of electron‐rich heterocycles with aryl iodides and bromides. Lithium tert‐ butoxide in DMF promotes this reaction for a variety of N ‐alkyl‐ and N ‐arylpyrroles as well as for benzofuran and some other electron‐rich aromatic compounds and provides the desired products in moderate to high yields. In contrast to all previous reports on the Pd‐catalyzed direct arylation of indolizine, the reaction mediated by lithium tert‐ butoxide proceeds selectively at position 5.