Hydrogen-bond-driven electrophilic activation for selectivity control during competitive formation of 1,2-disubstituted and 2-substituted benzimidazoles from o-phenylenediamine and aldehydes is reported. The fluorous alcohols trifluoroethanol and hexafluoro-2-propanol efficiently promote the cyclocondensation of o-phenylenediamine with aldehydes to afford selectively the 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles at rt in short times. A mechanistic insight is invoked by NMR, mass spectrometry, and chemical studies to rationalize the selectivity. The ability of the fluorous alcohols in promoting the reaction and controlling the selectivity can be envisaged from their better hydrogen bond donor (HBD) abilities compared to that of the other organic solvents as well as of water. Due to the better HBD values, the fluorous alcohols efficiently promote the initial bisimine formation by electrophilic activation of the aldehyde carbonyl. Subsequently the hydrogen-bond-mediated activation of the in situ-formed bisimine triggers the rearrangement via 1,3-hydride shift to form the 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles.

A conceptually new dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) based oxidation process without the use of any activator has been demonstrated for the oxidation of active methylenes and benzhydrols. The developed protocol utilizes the electrophilic center of DMSO for oxidation, which was unexplored before. Mechanistic investigation has confirmed that the source of oxygen is DMSO.

Selectivity control during the formation of 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles has been achieved for the reaction of o-phenylenediamine with aldehydes in the presence of solid supported protic acids as catalysts and choosing an appropriate reaction medium. Perchloric acid adsorbed on silica-gel (HClO 4 -SiO 2 ) was found to be the most effective catalyst system for the synthesis of 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles in EtOH at rt. Apart from the catalyst and solvent, the electronic and steric factors of the aldehyde and the electronic factor of the o-phenylenediamine are also significant contributory factors in dictating the selectivity. An understanding of the mechanistic course of the formation of the 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles has been outlined that would rationalise the origin of selectivity control under the set experimental parameters.

A cobalt­(III) catalyzed hydroarylation of Michael acceptors using indolines, selectively at the C-7 position, has been reported. For the selective C-7 functionalization of indoline, we have used a weakly coordinating amide carbonyl group. During the process of optimization, we have also discovered the unusual cocatalytic activity of zinc triflate in the C–H functionalization reaction. Hydroarylation of unprotected maleimide using indolines was a challenging substrate and never accomplished before, we were able to achieve this with our methodology in good yields.