A Practical Synthesis of α-Aryl Methyl Ketones via a Transition-Metal-Free Meerwein Arylation

We report herein a simple, scalable, transition-metal-free approach to the synthesis of α-aryl methyl ketones from diazonium tetrafluoroborate salts under mild conditions. This methodology uses easily accessible and nontoxic starting material and was applied to the multi-kilogram-scale preparation of 1-(3-bromo-4-methylphenyl)propan-2-one.