Palladium-Catalyzed Acetylation of Arenes

A simple method for the preparation of aryl methyl ketones is reported. The transformation involves the Pd-catalyzed coupling of an acyl anion equivalent, acetyl­trimethyl­silane, with aryl bromides to afford the corresponding acetylated arenes in synthetically useful yields. The methodology is tolerant of heterocycles and provides a new method for arene functionalization