Trifluoroacetic anhydride-catalyzed conjugate addition of boronic acids to α,β-unsaturated ketones

The conjugate addition of boronic acids to alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones catalyzed by acylating reagents has been explored. The results show that trifluoroacetic anhydride catalyzes the addition of vinylboronic acids under experimentally simple and metal-free conditions for a variety of substrates with good yields. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.