A facile, microwave-assisted, palladium-catalyzed arylation of acetone

We report an expedient method for the heteroarylation of acetone under tin-free conditions. The coupling is performed using the commercially available enol silane of acetone (2-trimethylsilyloxypropene) and a corresponding aryl bromide, chloride or triflate under microwave-assisted conditions, with tris(dibenzylideneacetone)dipalladium (Pd2(dba)3) or palladium acetate (Pd(OAc)2) and 2-(2′,6′-dimethoxybiphenyl)dicyclohexylphosphine (S-Phos) as the catalyst system.