A combination of water and microwave irradiation promotes the catalyst-free addition of pyrroles and indoles to nitroalkenes

A combination of water and microwave irradiation was used for the first time to perform a catalyst-free nitro-Michael addition of pyrroles and indoles. Under superheated conditions, the water trends to ionize by changing its chemical and physical properties. Therefore, we performed a new green-protocol using the water either as environmentally no harm solvent or as catalyst. The reaction success is independent from the kind of pyrrole, indole or nitroalkenes rapidly affording the corresponding adducts and giving excellent yields.