Polarclean/Water as a Safe and Recoverable Medium for Selective C2-Arylation of Indoles Catalyzed by Pd/C

Herein, we report the use of nontoxic, water-miscible Polarclean as a safe dipolar aprotic solvent for the metal-catalyzed direct C2–H arylation of indoles using Pd/C as a catalyst. The developed method allows reaching excellent yields and regioselectivities, and it tolerates various substituents on both indole and diaryliodonium salt scaffolds. Polarclean is fully recoverable and reusable; it shows a very low leaching of the metal catalyst, allowing its complete recovery and reuse for at least six representative reaction runs.