Synthesis of Aryl Ketones from Grignard Reagents

Significance

The direct synthesis of ketones from acyl chlorides and Grignard reagents is a synthetically attractive process. Usually, it requires a transmetallation to the zinc or copper species to suppress further nucleophile attack on the resulting ketone. Reducing the reactivity of the Grignard reagent by means of a complexation represents another elegant solution of this problem. The ligand used here is commercially available and inexpensive. The range of suitable substrates is rather broad and the yields are uniformly good. Even the easily enolizable benzyl ketones react very smoothly under the described conditions.