Atom-Economical Syntheses of Dihydropyrroles Using Flavin-Iodine-Catalyzed Aerobic Multistep and Multicomponent Reactions.

Herein, we report facile, atom-economical syntheses of multisubstituted 2,3-dihydropyrroles using flavin-iodine-catalyzed aerobic oxidative multistep transformations of chalcones with β-enamine ketones or 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds and amines. Exploiting coupled flavin-iodine catalysis, the multistep reaction, including C-C and C-N bond formation, is promoted only by the consumption of O2 (1 atm), thus allowing aerobic oxidative synthesis that generates green H2O as the only waste.