Hoechst Celanese Corporation

John F Fritch

Mohammad Aslam

Joel C Smith

Dora E Rios

The palladium-catalyzed coupling of aryl and vinyl halides with vinylic compounds is disclosed. A preferred embodiment relating to the palladium catalyzed coupling of 4-substituted and 6-substituted-2-methoxynaphthalene to form nabumetone is also disclosed. The beauty of this novel reaction is that methylvinylketone, normally employed by the art directly as-is for the preparation of nabumetone, is formed in situ. We have discovered a mechanism to take advantage of the in situ formation of methylvinylketone, thus avoiding the use of expensive, toxic, and unstable methyl vinyl ketone feed. This reaction may be employed for a variety of pharmaceutically active and non-pharmaceutical compounds.

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Corpus Christi, TX, United States of America

John F Fritch