Synthesis of substituted aryl enol ethers

A facile route toward substituted aryl diarylvinyl ethers 4 is developed from CuI-mediated cross-coupling reaction of substituted phenols 2 with diarylvinyl bromides 3 in the presence of various bidentate-based ligands in DMF. Skeleton 3 is prepared by Yan’s bromomethylenation of diarylketones 1 with CHBr3–TiCl4–Mg in the co-solvent of DME and CH2Cl2. The synthetic route obtains moderate yields from the one-step operation and the key structure of 4k is confirmed by X-ray crystallographic analysis. The CADD docking experiments of 4k have been included.