A method to prepare 1H-indole-2-carbaldehydes and (E)-2-(iodomethylene)indolin-3-ols by gold(I)-catalyzed cycloisomerization of 1-(2-(tosylamino)phenyl)prop-2-yn-1-ols with N-iodosuccinimide (NIS) is reported. The reactions were shown to be operationally simplistic and proceed efficiently for a wide variety of substrates, affording the corresponding products in good to excellent yields (70-99%). The mechanism is suggested to involve activation of the alkyne moiety of the substrate by the gold(I) catalyst. This triggers intramolecular addition of the tethered aniline moiety to give a vinyl gold intermediate, which undergoes iododeauration with NIS to give the (E)-2-(iodomethylene)indolin-3-ol adduct. Subsequent 1,3-allylic alcohol isomerization (1,3-AAI) followed by formylation of this vinyl iodide intermediate then gives the 1H-indole-2-carbaldehyde.
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Kothandaraman et al. (2011) studied this question.