Hong-Yan Huang, Liang Cheng,*, Jie-Jie Liu, Dong Wang, Li Liu,* Chao-Jun Li*

An effective transition-metal-free approach for the synthesis of 3-alkynyl-2-oxindoles through a radical−radical coupling process was developed. The reaction was general with respect to 2-oxindoles and iodoalkynes and provided the desired products bearing a quaternary center at C3 in good to excellent yields, making this method synthetically viable and attractive for the synthesis of spiro and fused 2-oxindole derivatives.

This work has been published in J. Org. Chem. 2017, 82, 2656-2663.