Selective Synthesis of Either Isoindole- or Isoindoline-1-carboxylic Acid Esters by Pd(0)-Catalyzed Enolate Arylation

Two efficient palladium-catalyzed intramolecular alpha-arylation reactions of alpha-amino acid esters have been developed that allow either 1-isoindolecarboxylic acid esters or the corresponding isoindolines to be selectively synthesized simply by a slight change of reaction conditions.