Mechanochemical Preferential Bromination at the α‐Position of Activated Naphthalenes

This study is the exploration of a solvent-free, mechanochemically enabled sustainable pathway for rapid and preferential selective α-bromination of β-functionalized naphthalenes using N-bromosuccinimide. Gram-scale synthesis and diverse post-functionalizations demonstrate the versatility of the α-brominated β-functionalized naphthalenes in organic synthesis, pharmaceuticals, materials, and catalysis. This green and environment-benign approach, having E-factor of 0.5, offers high yields up to 98% within 30 minutes and highlights broad functional electron-donating groups (EDGs) along with limitations of electron-withdrawing groups (EWGs).