Efficient synthesis of quinoxalines with hypervalent iodine as a catalyst

Various biologically important quinoxalines were efficiently synthesized in excellent yields via one-pot reaction between 1,2-diaminobenzenes and internal alkynes. The method utilizes inexpensive and readily available hypervalent iodine source, such as (diacetoxyiodo)benzene (PhI(OAc)2) and proved to be a better alternative as compared to expensive transition metal catalysts. Quinoxaline 4i [(2-phenyl-3-(3,4,5-trimethoxy phenyl)quinoxaline)] was evaluated for leukemia cancer cell lines and turned out to be a good candidate.