Chloro-2-methylindole (2) was detected when the chlorination was carried out with an indole to NaOCl ratio of 10: l. Sodium hypochlorite was found to promote the rearrangement of N- chloroindoles 2 and 4. The chlorination of 2-phenylindole (6) gave a mixture of N, 3-dichloro- 2-phenylindole (8) and 3, 3-dichloro-2-phenyl-3H-indole (9) in a total yield of 8142%. The rearrangement of 8 to 9 was detected by IR and UV. This occurred in the presence or ...