Decarbonylation of 1,2-Diketones to Diaryl Ketones via Oxidative Addition Enabled by an Electron-Deficient Au–Pd Nanoparticle Catalyst

Decarbonylation via oxidative addition has been widely studied as a challenging and beneficial transformation using various carbonyl compounds. To our knowledge, however, diaryl 1,2-diketones have not been subjected to this type of decarbonylation thus far. Herein, we report a versatile 1,2-diketone decarbonylation to afford diaryl ketones via oxidative addition by utilizing a CeO2-supported Au–Pd alloy nanoparticle catalyst. According to a thorough catalyst characterization, kinetic evaluation, and control experiment, the high catalytic performance is attributed to the promotion of the reductive elimination as the turnover-limiting step by electron-deficient Pd(0) species due to their strong interaction with CeO2 and to the suppression of catalyst deactivation by alloying Pd with Au. The present work provides a methodology for activating inert C–C bonds via oxidative addition based on the use of a multifunctional supported nanoparticle catalyst.