Oxidant-free rhodium(I)-catalyzed difunctionalization of acrylamide: an efficient approach to synthesize oxindoles.

The first rhodium(I)-catalyzed difunctionalization of arylacrylamides to synthesize oxindoles is developed, and it does not require the assistance of an oxidant. This method provides an efficient approach to generate various useful functionalized oxindoles, some of which cannot be easily accessed by previous approaches.