Palladium Mediated Synthesis of Substituted Phenols From Acyclic Ketones

The direct functionalization of phenols at the ortho and para position is generally facilitated by the electron-donating nature of the hydroxyl group. Accessing meta substituted phenols, on the other hand, often requires lengthy synthetic sequences. Here, we report a conceptually different method for the one-pot synthesis of substituted phenols by using a pre-functionalization strategy whereby the functional group is installed on the substrate, an acyclic unsaturated ketone, before a cyclization/aromatization reaction. Hence, the functionality is present during the palladium(II) catalyzed reaction. This transformation leads to the formation of various mono-, di-, and trisubstituted phenols with substituents at various positions.