A Facile Synthesis of N-Aryl Substituted Piperidones

A general and efficient procedure for the synthesis of N‐aryl‐substituted 4‐piperidones was developed. The two step syntheses proceeded with an overall yield of 60%‐83% using L‐proline as the ligand for the Cu(I)‐catalyzed Ullmann amination followed by subsequent hydrolysis of resulting ketals.