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Ruthenium-Catalyzed Redox-Neutral C–H Activation via N–N Cleavage: Synthesis of N-Substituted Indoles

Zhenxing Zhang, Hao Jiang, and Yong Huang*, Org. Lett. 2014, 16, 5976–5979

The first Ru-catalyzed redox-neutral C–H activation reaction via N–N bond cleavage is reported. Pyrazolidin-3-one is demonstrated as an internally oxidative directing group that enables C–H annulation reactions with a broad scope of alkynes, including previously incompetent terminal alkynes. Pharmacologically privileged 3-(1H-indol-1-yl)propanamides were synthesized in high yields.