Palladium-Catalyzed Decarboxylative ortho-Acylation of Anilines with Carbamate as a Removable Directing Group

[Image: see text] An efficient palladium-catalyzed decarboxylative ortho-acylation of anilines with α-oxocarboxylic acids has been realized by using carbamate as a directing group (DG). The reaction proceeds smoothly with high regioselectivity to afford diverse acylation products of aniline derivatives in moderate to good yields under mild conditions. This transformation exhibits broad substrate scope and highly functional group tolerance. In addition, the employed DG can be easily removed to give the corresponding 2-amino aromatic ketones. Importantly, several transformations of the synthesized ortho-acylated anilines into several synthetically valuable products have been demonstrated for their utilities.