A simple and efficient palladium-catalyzed intramolecular carbonylativesynthesis of isocoumarins and phthalides from the easily available starting materials by employing phenylformate as a CO surrogate has been achieved. The approach affords target compounds in good to excellent yields with the advantages of lower toxicity, milder conditions, easy operation and wide functional group tolerance.
Herein, we report that palladium catalyzes the borylative cyclization of α-(2-bromoaryl) ketones to afford 1,2-benzoxaborinines. The developed system is compatible with a variety of functionalities (Me, t-Bu, OMe, NMe2, F, Cl, CN, CF3, CO2Me, and heteroaryl groups) and is applicable to the synthesis of B–O-containing tri- and tetracyclic fused-ring compounds.