18,19 Naphthalene-1,2-dicarboxaldehyde (11) was recommended as an alternative reagent with claims that the product isoindoles 12 would be more stable, but the proposal seemingly has not received acceptance from the scientific community as the increases in stability are probably not significant to justify the cost of this reagent. 17 Our initial attempt to characterize the product of the three-component reaction between phthalaldehyde 7, amines and thiols ( Fig. 3 ) met with significant synthetic challenges, as evident by the low stability of 10a.
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