A straightforward and atom-economical base-free palladium-catalyzed regioselective direct arylation of coumarins and chromenones is devised. This protocol is compatible with a wide variety of electron-donating and -withdrawing substituents and allows construction of various biologically important flavone and neoflavone backbones.
coumarin-3-carboxylic acids is developed. This approach enables controlled protodecarboxylation/regioselective C–H arylation of coumain-3-carboxylic acids in one-pot using a monometallic catalytic system. A wide variety of electron-donating and -withdrawing substituents on both coumarins and arylboronic acid are tolerated under the reaction conditions and 4-aryl coumarins are constructed in high yields.