Sommelet-Hauser-type rearrangement ylides

The mechanism of the indolization of aniline 5 with methylthio-2-propanone 6 is illustrated below. Aniline 5 reacts with f-BuOCl to provide A-chloroaniline 9. This chloroaniline 9 reacts with sulfide 6 to yield azasulfonium salt 10. Deprotonation of the carbon atom adjacent to the sulfur provides the ylide 11. Intramolecular attack of the nucleophilic portion of the ylide 11 in a Sommelet-Hauser type rearrangement produces 12. Proton transfer and re-aromatization leads to 13 after which intramolecular addition of the amine to the carbonyl function generates the carbinolamine 14. Dehydration of 14 by prototropic rearrangement eventually furnishes the indole 8. 

Another type of ylidic rearrangement, the Sommelet-Hauser rearrangement, was discovered later, in 1937, by Sommelet and studied extensively by Sommelet and by Hauser. This transposition involves the base-promoted rearrangement of non stabilized ammonium and sulfonium ylides. Thus, the ammonium salt (11), when heated with alkali, gave cleanly the substituted diphenylmethane derivative (12 Scheme 5). Wittig found that the dibenzyl ammonium salt (13) reacted with phenyllithium giving two... 

---