Nickel-Catalyzed Ring Expansion of Cyclobutanones towards Indanones

Despite recent advances in catalytic ring-opening/cross-coupling process of o-halogen tethered phenylcyclobutanones with other partners, single-component ring expansion of such precursors towards 3-methylindanones has not been disclosed. We present herein a nickel catalyzed C-C bond reconstruction sequence of o-bromophenylcyclobutanones using H2O as hydrogen donor, leading to a series of indanones, which can be further converted into other benzene-fused cyclic compounds.

Automated summary

We have developed a nickel catalyzed C-C bond reconstruction method using H2O as a hydrogen donor, which enables the conversion of o-bromophenylcyclobutanones into indanones and further synthesis of benzene-fused cyclic compounds.