AlCl3-Mediated Synthesis of 4-Aryl-2-quinolone-3-carboxylates

Abstract

4-Aryl-2-quinolones are important skeletons from both chemical and medicinal viewpoints. We herein report the development of an efficient synthetic method for 3-substituted 4-aryl-2-quinolones. The key reaction in this process involves an AlCl3-mediated intramolecular cyclization of substituted 2-(carbamoyl)-3-phenylacrylates, with optimized reaction conditions of 2.0 equivalents of AlCl3, nitrobenzene, 80 degrees C, and 3 hours. The chemical yields of cyclization were found to be sensitive to all reaction conditions.