IBX: a novel and versatile oxidant for electrophilic thiocyanation of indoles, pyrrole and arylamines

The direct thiocyanation of indoles and pyrrole with ammonium thiocyanate has been achieved using o-iodoxybenzoic acid (IBX) under mild and neutral conditions to produce indol-3-yl and pyrrol-2-yl thiocyanates, respectively, in excellent yields and with high selectivity. This method is effective even with N-substituted arylamines for the preparation of aryl thiocyanates