Palladium-catalysed direct arylations of NH-free pyrrole and N-tosylpyrrole with aryl bromides

The palladium-catalysed direct coupling of aryl halides with pyrroles provides a greener access to arylated pyrroles than more classical couplings such as Suzuki, Stille or Negishi reactions. However, so far, NH-free pyrrole and N-tosylpyrrole gave disappointing results for such couplings either in terms of regioselectivity of the arylation, catalyst loading or substrate scope. The reactivity of both NH-free pyrrole and N-tosylpyrrole was studied, and the tosylated pyrrole led to higher yields of coupling products due to better conversions of the aryl bromides. A range of aryl bromides undergo regioselective coupling at C2 of N-tosylpyrrole in moderate to good yields using 1 mol % [Pd(Cl(C3H5)]2 as the catalyst, KOAc as the base in DMAc.