Abstract
A metal-free N-acylation method of anilines with 1,3-diketones has been developed, by using iodine and p-toluene sulfonic acid as the co-catalysts. The reaction can proceed in 1,4-dioxane at elevated temperature to produce the corresponding amides with 48–89% yields. Further, the gram-scale experiment was carried out under the standard conditions and the possible mechanism was proposed.