Selective palladium-catalyzed carbonylative synthesis of aurones with formic acid as the CO source

Abstract

A general and practical strategy has been developed to prepare aurone derivatives. In the presence of the palladium catalyst, 2-iodophenol and terminal alkynes were reacted by using formic acid as the CO source with acetic anhydride as the additive. A variety of aurones were obtained in moderate to good yields. Notably, this is first report on carbonylative synthesis of aurones with formic acid as the CO source.