Electrosynthesis of substituted 1H-indoles from o-nitrostyrenes.
A novel procedure has been devised for the synthesis of derivatives of 1H-indole that is based on the direct, room-temperature electrochemical reduction of substituted o-nitrostyrenes at carbon cathodes in N,N-dimethylformamide containing tetramethylammonium tetrafluoroborate as supporting electrolyte and in the presence of a 10-fold molar excess of a proton donor (phenol or methyl 3-oxobutanoate).