The availability of facile cross-coupling protocols is sometimes blamed for the high occurrence of ‘flat’ aromatic molecules in drug-screening collections. Here, reagents are described that make possible the one-step transformation of aldehydes into medium-ring saturated N-heterocycles. The methodology has exceptional substrate scope and functional group tolerance and provides a route to heterocycles not easily prepared by other methods.
- Cam-Van T. Vo
- Michael U. Luescher
- Jeffrey W. Bode