Salicylic acids as readily available starting materials for the synthesis of meta-substituted biaryls.

Salicylic acids are shown to be readily available and versatile starting materials that easily undergo a tandem arylation-protodecarboxylation process under Pd-catalysis. The corresponding meta-arylphenols can subsequently be easily transformed into a variety of meta-functionalized biaryls, highlighting the versatility of this approach to access this structural motif.