Lewis Base‐assisted Arylation of Unsaturated Carbonyls

Abstract

The combination of Lewis bases with α,β‐unsaturated carbonyls allows the in‐situ generation of enolates without the need for strong Brønsted bases. Recently developed synthetic methods employ this approach for arylation followed by elimination of the Lewis base, regenerating the alkene. This strategy has been deployed for formal α‐ or β‐C−H arylation in different contexts, namely (a) transition metal catalysis, (b) rearrangement reactions utilizing hypervalent main group elements and (c) organocatalysis. This concept article provides an overview of the developed strategies, highlighting and contextualizing their features.