1 State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Life Sciences, Center for Multimolecular Organic Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University , Nanjing 210093, China.
2 Department of Chemistry, Colorado State University , Fort Collins, Colorado 80523, United States.
An effective Pd-catalyzed hydrocarboxylation of aryl olefins with Ac2O and formic acid is described. A variety of 2- and 3-arylpropanoic acids can be regioselectively formed by the judicious choice of ligand without the use of toxic CO gas.