Palladium-catalyzed mono-α-arylation of acetone with aryl halides and tosylates.

We report the first example of selective Pd-catalyzed mono-α-arylation of acetone employing aryl chlorides, bromides, iodides, and tosylates. The use of appropriately designed P,N-ligands proved to be the key to controlling the reactivity and selectivity. The reaction affords good yields with substrates containing a range of functional groups at modest Pd loadings using Cs(2)CO(3) as the base and employing acetone as both a reagent and the solvent.