Cycloadditions with hetaryl dieneamines a direct route to hetarylazulenes

Hetaryl dieneamines readily available from fused N-aryl azolium salts with secondary amines were found to undergo cycloadditions. With N-phenylmaleinimide and acetylene dicarboxylic ester, [4+2] cycloaddition took place to yield tetrahydroisoindolone (2) and phtalic acid (3) derivatives, respectively. Reaction with fulvene reagent4 resulted in a [6+4] cycloaddition followed by a spontaneous elimination and allowed a convenient route to hetaryl azulenes (5–7).