Brönsted acid catalyzed direct oxidative arylation of 1,4-naphthoquinone

Article history: Received March 27, 2013 Received in Revised form August 27, 2013 Accepted 17 October 2013 Available online 18 October 2013 An inexpensive straightforward approach to direct oxidative twofold C-H arylation of 1,4naphthoquinone catalyzed by readily available Bronsted acids was developed. Under the simple and easily achievable reaction conditions, electron-rich aromatics undergo Friedel-Crafts type functionalization to furnish 2-arylonaphthoquinones in good yields. The attempt to rationalize the scope and limitation of the approach based on desktop PC DFT calculation and reactivity indexes theory was taken up. © 2013 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.