Palladium-Catalyzed Carbonylative Coupling of Aryl Iodides and Benzyl Acetylenes to 3-Alkylidenefuran-2-ones under Mild Conditions and Its Density Functional Theory Modeling

A general and efficient method for the palladium-catalyzed carbonylative coupling of aryl iodides to benzyl acetylenes has been developed. Various furanones have been prepared in excellent yields from their corresponding benzyl acetylenes at room temperature under a CO atmosphere. For aliphatic alkynes, their corresponding alkynones were obtained in good yields. Detailed DFT calculations have also been carried out to understand the reaction pathway and the most probable reaction mechanism has been proposed.