Divergent Coupling of 2-Aryl-1,3-Indandiones with Alkenes Enabled by Iodine Catalyst

Herein, we report an iodine-catalyzed protocol for cross-coupling of 2-aryl-1,3-indandiones with alkenes. Divergent reactivity was achieved in the transformation by varying additives and solvents, thus allowing selective access to tertiary alkylated ketones and alkenes. The present approach features commercially available starting materials, broad substrate scope, general functional-group (including halogen, ester, nitrile, thioether) tolerance. Furthermore, we proposed plausible pathways to rationalize the divergent selectivity through preliminary mechanism study.