title: Introducing tetramethylurea as a new methylene precursor: a microwave-assisted RuCl3-catalyzed cross dehydrogenative coupling approach to bis(indolyl)methanes.
abstract: Herein we report a microwave assisted Ru(iii)/TBHP-mediated reaction of indoles with tetramethylurea (TMU) synthesizing symmetrical as well as unsymmetrical bis(indolyl)methanes, where TMU acts as a methylenating agent. This is the first report where TMU is used as a methylene source. Moreover, the synthesis of unsymmetrical bis(indolyl)methanes by using a carbon precursor is also reported herein for the first time. Various substituted indoles are used for the reaction. The reaction is high yielding and takes a much shorter time to accomplish compared to the existing methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Sciences, GUIST, Gauhati University, Guwahati-781014, Assam, India. mohitdd.deb@gmail.com baruah.pranjal@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Mohit L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Deb
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Sciences, GUIST, Gauhati University, Guwahati-781014, Assam, India. mohitdd.deb@gmail.com baruah.pranjal@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Paran J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Borpatra
authors.affiliation: Analytical chemistry division, CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat-785006, India.
authors.forename: Prakash J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Saikia
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Sciences, GUIST, Gauhati University, Guwahati-781014, Assam, India. mohitdd.deb@gmail.com baruah.pranjal@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Pranjal K
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5829-1440
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Baruah