A Kinetic Study of the Step of Aryl Halide Activation in a Direct Arylation Reaction of Indole under Real Catalysis Conditions

This paper presents the results of a kinetic study on the step of activation of aryl iodides and aryl bromides under conditions of ligand-free catalysis in the direct arylation of indole at a C–H bond performed using an analysis of the integral kinetic curves of consumption of the competing aryl halides. In the course of an experiment under the conditions of competition between a pair of aryl halides having different reactivity, an acceleration in the consumption of a less active substrate was observed, which coincided in time with the almost complete consumption of a more active one. The experimental data unambiguously indicated a rapid character of the stage of oxidative addition with the participation of not only reactive aryl iodides but also nonactivated aryl bromides.