Acid-catalyzed cleavage of C–C bonds enables atropaldehyde acetals as masked C2 electrophiles for organic synthesis

Atropaldehyde acetals acted as masked C2 electrophiles via a novel cleavage of C–C bonds that allowed us to establish novel tandem reactions for the rapid synthesis of 2,2-disubstituted indolin-3-ones, naphthofurans and stilbenes.