The prevalence of naphthalene compounds in biologically active natural products, organic ligands and approved drugs has motivated the development of efficient strategies for their selective synthesis. C-H functionalization of naphthalene has been frequently used, but mainly focus on two-component reaction, while multiple-component C-H functionalization for the synthesis of naphthalene compounds has thus far proven elusive. Herein, we disclose a versatile three-component protocol for the modular synthesis of multifunctional naphthalenes from readily available simple naphthalenes, olefins and alkyl bromides via P(III)-assisted ruthenium catalyzed remote C-H functionalization. This protocol not only tolerates various functional groups, but can be applied to many natural product and drug derivatives, including three-component reaction with two different bioactive molecules. Mechanism studies indicated that the utilization of tertiary phosphines as auxiliary groups is the key to achieving the three-component free radical reaction.

This article is Open Access

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