Selective α-bromination of aryl carbonyl compounds: prospects and challenges.

The α-bromination of carbonyl compounds is one of the most important transformations and also important precursors in synthetic organic chemistry. Particularly, the side chain monobromination of carbonyl compounds has been a challenging task, because during the reaction a small amount of disubstituted or ring brominated products as an impurity is always accompanied with monosubstituted product in the reaction mixture. In recent years substantial advances have been made for the synthesis of brominated aromatic carbonyl compounds with high selectivity. In this review, we have summarized various methods for the synthesis of α-bromo aromatic carbonyl compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]