High-Pressure Accelerated Asymmetric Organocatalytic Friedel-Crafts Alkylation of Indoles with Enones: Application to Quaternary Stereogenic Centers Construction

An organocatalytic Friedel-Crafts alkylation of indoles with alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones was found to be efficiently accelerated under high-pressure conditions with a low loading of chiral primary amine salts with good yield and enantioselectivity up to 90%. This approach also allows, for the first time, selected indole derivatives containing quaternary stereogenic centers to be obtained from prochiral beta,beta-disubstituted enones with an enantioselectivity up to 80%.