Lithioarene Cycliacylation and Pd-Catalyzed Aminoethylation/Cyclization to Access Electronically Diverse Saturated Isoquinoline Derivatives.

We report operationally facile methods for the synthesis of substituted dihydroisoquinolinones and tetrahydroisoquinolines from readily accessible o -bromobenzyl bromides and o -bromobenzaldehydes, respectively. While classical electrophilic aromatic substitution reactions are tailored to the construction of saturated isoquinolines derived from electron-rich precursors, we demonstrate efficient syntheses from electronically diverse substrates to produce cyclized products as single regioisomers.