Carbonylative cyclization of biaryl enones with aldehydes and oxamic acids.

An oxidative radical-promoted carbonylative cyclization strategy for the synthesis of phenanthren-9-(10 H )-one frameworks from biaryl enones using aldehydes as the carbonyl radical sources is disclosed. The reaction proceeds through a sequential addition of a carbonyl radical to the olefin followed by cyclization with an aryl ring. The method is further extended to carbamoyl radicals generated from oxamic acids to access the corresponding phenanthrenones with amide functionalities.