Conjugated arylacetylenic ketones and aldehydes, propargyl-type alcohols, and arylacetylenes reacted with arenes in the presence of AlBr3 or AlCl3 as catalyst to give substituted indenes. 3-Arylpropynoic acids under analogous conditions gave rise to 3,3-diarylindan-1-ones, while the corresponding methyl esters were converted into methyl 3,3-diarylprop-2-enoates. The key intermediates in the transformations of acetylenic ketones and aldehydes and propargyl-type alcohols into indene derivatives are resonance-stabilized propargyl—allenyl cations -C≡ C-C+ ↔ -C+=C=C which reacted with one of the resonance structures to give isomeric indenes, depending on the substituent nature.
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