Autocatalytic Friedel-Crafts Acylation Of Arenes Without Additional Catalyst And Additive

A new and autocatalytic method was developed for Friedel-Crafts acylation of arenes without additional catalyst and additive. A series of electron-rich arenes underwent the acylation to give the targeted product in low to high yields by using aryl, alkyl and vinyl acyl chlorides as the acylating reagent, which gave an effective method for the preparation of diaryl ketones, alkyl aryl ketones and alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones. Preliminary mechanistic investigation suggested that the present acylation displayed an induction period and a sigmoid kinetic profile characteristic of autocatalytic systems, and the resulting H+ played a role of the catalyst.