Hypervalent iodine mediated radical cyclization of o-(allyloxy)arylaldehydes and N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI) under metal-free conditions

[Display omitted] •Hypervalent iodine mediated reactions.•Reactions proceed via radical cyclization mechanism.•Mild and metal-free reaction conditions. An efficient and practical method for the synthesis of substituted chroman-4-ones was developed. The corresponding products can be obtained with moderate to high yields at room temperature. Control experiments suggested that this transformation was likely to proceed via a radical pathway. The preliminary activity test showed that some of the compounds had moderate to high antibacterial activity.