B(C6F5)3-Catalyzed Highly Chemoselective Reduction of Isatins: Synthesis of Indolin-3-ones and Indolines.

A chemo- and site-selective reduction reaction of isatin derivatives using catalyst B(C6F5)3 and hydrosilanes is described. This transformation is operationally simple, proceeds under mild conditions, and is resistant to various functional groups. Thus, this efficient reaction using a combination of B(C6F5)3 and BnMe2SiH or B(C6F5)3 and Et2SiH2 could potentially be utilized to produce various indolin-3-ones and indolines, without the need for multistep procedures and metal catalysis conditions.