Brönsted acid catalyzed direct oxidative arylation of 1,4-naphthoquinone

An inexpensive straightforward approach to direct oxidative twofold C-H arylation of 1,4-naphthoquinone catalyzed by readily available Brönsted acids was developed. Under the simple and easily achievable reaction conditions, electron-rich aromatics undergo Friedel-Crafts type functionalization to furnish 2-arylonaphthoquinones in good yields. The attempt to rationalize the scope and limitation of the approach based on desktop PC DFT calculation and reactivity indexes theory was taken up.