Synthesis of aromatic ketones by a transition metal-catalyzed tandem sequence.

Both simple Ag(I) and Au(I) are effective catalysts for a tandem [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement/formal Myers-Saito cyclization of propargyl esters to form aromatic ketones. A mechanism in which the metal catalyzes both of these processes through alkyne activation is proposed. By using this method a wide range of aromatic structures including naphthyl, anthracenyl and indole ketones are available from readily available propargyl esters.