Palladium-Catalyzed C(O)-C Bond Cleavage of Unstrained Ketones Assisted with Aryl Handles: An Approach to Diaryl Ketones.

C-C bond cleavage reactions have achieved remarkable progress in molecular deconstruction and skeleton editing. In this study, we describe a palladium-catalyzed synthesis of diaryl ketones through a sequence of α-arylation and aerobic oxidative C-C bond cleavage. This transformation features good functional group compatibility, especially for highly reactive groups, including -OH, NH2, and -CHO. Furthermore, this approach allows for gram-scale synthesis in a low catalyst loading manner. It also streamlines the synthesis of a variety of drugs or their intermediates. Mechanism studies reveal the essential role of utilizing a bulky ligand and the existence of air as the reaction atmosphere.