One-pot synthesis of α,α-disubstituted Aryl-1-ethanones via the Wittig-Horner reaction

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

A one-pot methodology for the synthesis of α,α-disubstituted aryl-1-ethanones via the Wittig-Horner reaction has been developed and described in this manuscript. Both aryl/alkyl and dialkyl α-branched arylethanone were obtained in high yields (up to 96%) without the use of any metal catalysts. A total of 14 α,α-disubstituted arylethanone derivatives were synthesized based on this simple method that easily converts the carbonyl carbon (sp²) into the sp³ carbon. This versatile method is expected to further promote the use of substituted ketones as synthetic building blocks to construct a variety of α-branched aryl ketones.

KEYWORDS:

• α,α-disubstituted aryl-1-ethanones
• active phosphonates
• one-pot synthesis
• Wittig-Horner reaction

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Professor Li-June Ming of the University of South Florida for carefully reading of the manuscript and constructive comments. We are grateful for financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai. (NO. 17ZR14120 00).

Supplementary material

Experimental procedures and full characterization data for all compounds are available on the Journal's website.

Funding

The Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (NO. 17ZR14120 00).