Potassium tert-Butoxide Promoted Intramolecular Mizoroki–Heck-Type Radical Cyclization: Photoluminescence Properties and Application in Live Cancer-Cell Imaging

Privileged indole-fused phenanthridinones were synthesized by an inexpensive potassium tert-butoxide-promoted intramolecular Mizoroki–Heck-type radical cyclization. This method offers high atom- and step-economic C–C bond formation. An array of the synthesized compounds showed good photoluminescence properties, and could be successfully applied as fluorescent bioprobes for imaging of living cancer cells.