Palladium-catalyzed carbonylative addition of aryl bromides to arylalkynes: a simple and efficient method for chalcone synthesisElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental procedures and spectroscopic data for the isolated compounds. See DOI: 10.1039/c4ob01263a

Palladium-catalyzed carbonylative addition of aryl bromides to terminal arylalkynes was carried out to produce chalcones in satisfactory to excellent yields. The unprecedented carbonylation reaction proceeded smoothly under mild conditions in the presence of a simple palladium catalyst system (PdCl 2 /DPPB/ i Pr 2 NEt) in N , N -dimethyl formamide. Chalcones can be prepared in satisfactory to excellent yields via palladium-catalyzed carbonylative addition of aryl bromides to terminal arylalkynes under mild conditions.