Recyclable Palladium-Catalyzed Carbonylative Cyclization of Aryl Iodides and 2-Hydroxyacetophenones towards Flavones

Abstract A highly efficient heterogeneous palladium-catalyzed carbonylative cyclization of aryl iodides and 2-hydroxyacetophenones is developed. The reaction proceeds efficiently in DMSO at 120 °C under 3 bar of carbon monoxide by using 2 mol% of an MCM-41-immobilized bidentate phosphine palladium complex [MCM-41-2P-Pd(OAc)2] as the catalyst and 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) as the base, providing a general, efficient and practical approach for the assembly of a wide variety of flavones in mostly good to high yields from readily available starting materials. This supported palladium catalyst can be easily recovered via centrifugation of the reaction mixture and recycled more than nine times without any significant loss of its catalytic efficiency.