Aerobic Intramolecular Oxidative Coupling Using Heterogeneous Catalyst for Synthesis of N-Substituted 2,3,6,7-Tetramethoxycarbazoles

A heterogeneous metal catalyst enabled the intramolecular oxidative coupling of diarylamines to form carbazoles with molecular oxygen as the sole oxidant. Rh/C had efficient catalytic activity and allowed the catalyst loading to be reduced to 0.1 mol% while maintaining excellent yields of carbazoles. This reaction is operationally simple in an open-to-air setup, and provides a green and atom-economical process for an efficient synthetic approach to N-substituted carbazoles.