Norbornene-Mediated Palladium-Catalysed Domino-Type Catellani Reaction: an Efficient and Regiospecific Acylation/Suzuki Coupling of Aryl Iodides: Norbornene-Mediated Palladium-Catalysed Domino-Type Catellani Reaction: an Efficient and Regiospecific Acylation/Suzuki Coupling of Aryl Iodides

The Catellani reaction is a domino reaction catalysed by palladium/norbornene. It can be used for the synthesis of a range of aromatic compounds in one step, and is of great interest in the synthesis of natural products and drugs. In this paper, we report a palladium/norbornene-catalysed ortho-acylation/ipso-Suzuki coupling reaction of aryl iodides using acyl chlorides as acylating agents and arylboronic acids as quenching reagents. The reactions were carried out using readily available starting materials, and ortho-aryl benzophenones were obtained in moderate to good yields. Compared with previous Catellani reactions, this reaction has a wider substrate scope, shorter reaction times, and higher yields of the target compounds.