Synthesis of Dihydroanthrathenes via Palladium-Catalyzed Tandem Mizoroki-Heck/Reductive Heck Reactions using Cyclic Diaryliodoniums and Alkenes

An efficient Pd-catalyzed domino Mizoroki–Heck and reductive Heck reaction of terminal alkenes with six-membered cyclic diaryliodoniums is reported for the facile access to a diverse set of novel dihydroanthracenes. The scope of alkenes is general, leading to concise generation of 30 dihydroanthracenes which are not easily accessed by conventional methods. Furthermore, one of the newly synthesized dihydroanthracene displayed excellent antiproliferative activity against PANC-1 cancer cells (IC50 = 11.74 μM).