Intramolecular aromatic carbenoid insertion of biaryldiazoacetates for the regioselective synthesis of fluorenes.

The rhodium- or copper-catalyzed intramolecular aromatic carbenoid insertion of biaryldiazoacetates offers a convenient route to fluorene carboxylates with high yields. Whereas, thermal conditions provided a mixture of two regioisomeric products when substituted biaryldiazoacetates were employed as substrates. The developed catalytic conditions displayed an excellent level of regioselectivity, presumably owing to steric effects. The insertion mechanism was assumed to be an electrophilic aromatic substitution, which was supported by preliminary mechanistic studies. A chloro-substituted fluorene derivative was efficiently synthesized and utilized as a base-sensitive protecting group of amines.