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 °C, and 3 hours. The chemical yields of cyclization were found
to be sensitive to all reaction conditions.
Key words
2-quinolone - Lewis acid - intramolecular - cyclization - oxidation