Rhodium‐Catalyzed Cascade Annulation of Benzimidates and Nitroalkenes for the Synthesis of Difunctionalized Indenes

A facile and expeditious protocol for the synthesis of difunctionalized indenes from readily available benzimidates and nitroalkenes through rhodium‐catalyzed C−H activation and cyclization is reported here. The transformation exhibits powerful reactivity, tolerates a large number of functional groups, and proceeds in moderate to high yields under an ambient atmosphere, providing a straightforward method to access structurally diverse and valuable difunctionalized indene derivatives.