A rhodium(II)‐ or copper(I)‐catalyzed formal intramolecular carbene insertion into vinylic C(sp 2 )−H bonds is reported herein. This method provides straightforward access to 1 H ‐indenes with high efficiency and excellent functional‐group compatibility. Mechanistically, the reaction is proposed to involve the following sequence: metal carbene formation, intramolecular nucleophilic addition of the double bond to the electron‐deficient carbene carbon atom, dearomatization, and finally a 1,5‐H shift.
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Zhou et al. (2017) studied this question.