Trifluoroacetic acid: a more effective and efficient reagent for the synthesis of 3-arylmethylene-3,4-dihydro-1H-quinolin-2-ones and 3-arylmethyl-2-amino-quinolines from Baylis-Hillman derivatives via Claisen rearrangement

Trifluoroacetic acid has been discovered to be a highly effective and efficient reagent for the tandem Claisen rearrangement and cyclization reaction to yield 3-arylmethylene-3,4-dihydro-1H-quinolin-2-ones from compounds obtained from the S_N2 reaction between anilines and acetyl derivatives of Baylis-Hillman adducts of acrylates in the presence of DABCO. In contrast, similar compounds obtained from the acetyl derivatives of Baylis-Hillman adduct of acrylonitrile on treatment with trifluoroacetic acid directly furnish 3-arylmethyl-2-amino-quinoline via tandem Claisen rearrangement, cyclization and isomerization.