Indium-Catalyzed Denitrogenative Transannulation of Pyridotriazoles: Synthesis of Pyrido[1,2-a]indoles

Pyrido[1,2-a]indoles are known for medicinally and pharmaceutically important compounds; however, the efficient synthetic routes are scarce in the literature. We report herein a convenient and efficient route to synthesize these molecules through indium-catalyzed transannulation of pyridotriazoles with arenes. A library of compounds have been synthesized employing the method developed with various substituted pyrido[1,2-a]indole derivatives in moderate to good yields. The density functional theory study using SMDDCB-M06/6-31++G(d,p)/LANL2DZ//B3LYP/6-31G(d)/LANL2DZ method suggests that the reactions proceed via indium-carbenoid complex.