Photocatalytic Alkylation of Pyrroles and Indoles with α-Diazo Esters

This article describes the photoalkylation of electron-rich aromatic compounds with diazo esters. C-2-alkylated indoles and pyrroles are obtained with good yields even though the photocatalyst loading is as low as 0.075 mol %. For EWG-substituted substrates, the addition of a catalytic amount of N,N-dimethyl-4-methoxyaniline is required. Both EWG-EWG- and EWG-EDG-substituted diazo esters are suitable as alkylating agents. The reaction selectivity and mechanistic experiments suggest that carbenes/carbenoid intermediates are not involved in the reaction pathway.