Transition-Metal Free Oxidative Alkynylation of 2-Oxindoles with Ethynylbenziodoxolone (EBX) Reagents.

We report an efficient direct alkynylations of 3-alkyl/aryl 2-oxindoles employing ethynyl-1,2-benziodoxol-3(1H)-one (EBX) to afford a wide variety of 3-alkynyl-3-alkyl/aryl 2-oxindole under transition-metal free condition. In addition to activated carbonyl compounds viz. 2-oxindole-3-alkylcarboxylates, this direct alkynylations protocol works efficiently on 3-alkyl/aryl 2-oxindols as well thereby widening the scope even further. Eventually, a Pd(0)-catalyzed asymmetric decarboxylative allylation of few products is shown to furnish synthetically viable enantioenriched 2-oxindoles with C-3 quaternary stereocenters.