A systematic study of two complementary protocols allowing the general, mild and efficient deprotection of N-pivaloylindoles

Two mild and general protocols for the high-yielding deprotection of indoles and related fused heterocyclic systems are described, involving either hydride transfer from LDA or hydrolysis by the DBU–water system. Both methods were shown to tolerate a wide variety of substituents and functional groups, but the hydrolytic one proved to be particularly general, being compatible with 2-alkyl substituents, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, halogens, ethers, amides and esters. Yields were normally excellent in both cases, but were usually slightly higher for the reductive method. Taken together, these two protocols provide a general solution to the problem of pivaloyindole deprotection.