A facile route to 5-methyl-5H-indeno[1,2-c]quinolones via palladium-catalyzed cyclization of 2-alkynylbromobenzenes with N,N-dimethyl-2-alkynylanilines.

A tandem reaction catalyzed by palladium is developed to provide a facile and simple route for the synthesis of 5-methyl-5H-indeno[1,2-c]quinolones, which can introduce diversity and complexity into the products from readily available starting materials. This transformation proceeds well with good functional group tolerance.