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Green chemistry that uses water as a solvent has recently received great attention in organic synthesis. Here we report an efficient synthesis of biologically important isocoumarins through direct cleavage of C-H/O-H bonds by microwave-accelerated and Rh/Cu-catalyzed oxidative annulation of various substituted benzoic acids, where water is used as the only solvent in the reactions. The remarkable features of this "green" methodology include high product yields, wide tolerance of various functional groups as substrates, and excellent region-/site-specificities, thus rendering this methodology a highly versatile and eco-friendly alternative to the existing methods for synthesizing isocoumarins and other biologically important derivatives such as isoquinolones.

The C‐2‐alkenylindole unit is a key component of numerous natural products and pharmacophores. However, the intermolecular direct construction of the core structural motif remains challenging in organic synthesis. Here we report a new, efficient, and versatile methodology for the synthesis of C‐2‐alkenylindoles through rhodium(III)‐catalyzed direct CH functionalization of indoles with acrylates under air by employing a metal‐directing group strategy. This strategy gives a rare selectivity for the alkenylation N‐(2‐pyrimidyl)indoles at the C‐2 position and provides the functionalized C‐2‐ alkenylindoles under mild conditions with broad substrate tolerance. An expansion of the methodology has also been demonstrated to, for example, the direct alkenylation of pyrrole and facile deprotection of the pyrimidyl group. All the results suggest that this methodology could be served as a highly attractive alternative for the direct construction of biologically important C‐2‐alkenylindoles.magnified image