Ruthenium?Catalyzed Sulfoalkenylation of Acetanilides and Dual?Use of the Catalyst Directing Group

In contrast to vinylsulfonates and vinylsulfones, vinylsulfonamides are unreactive in Pd-catalyzed oxidative Heck-coupling reactions with acetanilides. This limitation has been resolved by using a C?H-activation protocol based on Ru?Cu?Ag-catalysis. Overall, the Ru?Cu?Ag-catalyzed conditions turned out be more reliable showed better reproducibility than C?H-activation. The coupling products thus obtained functionalized styrenyl sulfones –sulfonamides which can used as starting materials for synthesis of sulfonyl pyrroles pyrrolo[2,3-c]quinolines.