Abstract Disclosed herein is the design of an unprecedented electrophilic rhodium enalcarbenoid which results from rhodium (II)-catalyzed decomposition of a new class of enaldiazo compounds. The synthetic utility of these enalcarbenoids has been successfully demonstrated in the first transition-metal-catalyzed [4+ 2] benzannulation of pyrroles, thus leading to substituted indoles. The new benzannulation has been applied to the efficient ...
