Combining photochemistry and catalysis: rapid access to sp(3) – rich polyheterocycles from simple pyrroles

Use of FEP flow reactor technology allows access to gram quantities of photochemically-generated tricyclic aziridines. These undergo a range of novel palladium-catalyzed ring-opening and cycloaddition reactions, likely driven by their inherent strain, allowing incorporation of further functionality by fusing additional heterocyclic rings onto these already complex polycyclic cores. This rapid, 2-step access to complex sp(3) – rich heterocycles should be of interest to those in the fields of drug discovery and natural product synthesis.