Versatile oxidative approach to carbazoles and related compounds using MoCl5.

The unique oxidizing power of molybdenum pentachloride provides an easy to perform, versatile, and high yielding method to construct carbazoles and the corresponding dibenzo analogues of thiophene, furan, and selenophene. The coupling reaction tolerates a variety of functional groups. The synthesis is highly modular. By this approach a precursor for the naturally occurring carbazole koenigicine was prepared.