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SYNTHETIC COMMUNICATIONSV
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strategy (Scheme 2). The reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature (RT) for
60 min, which afforded 74% of the desired product as a white solid (Table 1, entry 10).
1
The structure of 4a is assigned with the help of H NMR and 13C NMR data. Further,
the same reaction has been studied with different solvents like methanol, acetonitrile,
dimethylformamide, toluene and tetrahydrofuran at RT, resulting in the desired product
in moderate (40–72%) yield (Table 1, Entries 11–17). Screened different catalysts for
this reaction, such as Cu(OTf)2 (20%), InCl3 (20%), L-proline (20%), Piperidine (20%),
FeCl3 (20%), p-TsOH (20%), Sc(OTf)3 (20%), GaCl3 (20%) and InBr3 (20%) (Table 1,
Entries 1–9). All screened catalysts were found to be effective for this conversion.
However, when the reaction is carried out with PEG-600, the viscosity of the reaction
mixture is increased highly at RT and the reaction gets stuck, hence the reactants do
not interact effectively. The expected product is obtained a yield of 60% in 60 min
(Table 1, Entry 17). However, the reaction rate increased when the solvent was switched
from PEG-600 to PEG-600: EtOH. Therefore, the volumetric ratio of PEG and EtOH
was screened and the best results were obtained by carrying out the reaction in PEG-
600: EtOH with a ratio of 1:1(v/v) (Table 1, Entry 20).
When used PEG-600 and EtOH as an eco-friendly reaction medium, the reaction
gave an excellent result (96% yield) within 20 min at the ambient temperature. It has
been found that the reaction proceeded very well with increased yields, which clearly
indicates that the PEG-600 is the most effective reaction medium and promoter for this
transformation. From the results depicted in Table 1, we have selected the PEG-600 and
ethanol as a suitable reaction medium due to highest yield, in shorter reaction time,
and environmentally favorable.
Using these optimized reaction conditions, the generality of this reaction is being
verified using different aromatic amines with various substitutes are reacted successfully
by bearing electron-donating (such as methyl, methoxy) as well as electron-withdrawing
(such as halide) substituents. The reaction proceeded more quickly with aniline contain-
ing electron-donating groups (–Me, –OMe) to give the products in excellent yields
(4d–4i) within 15–45 min. The steric and electronic properties of the substituted amine
had very little impact on the efficiency of this reaction. However, when 1,4-phenylenedi-
amine with formaldehyde, and 4-hydroxyquinolin-2(1H)-one were used, gave the
desired product 3,30-(1,4-phenylene)bis(3,4-dihydro-2H-[1,3]oxazino[5,6-c]quinolin-
5(6H)-one) 4p was obtained in 78% yield. Similarly, the reaction of 4-hydroxy-1-meth-
ylquinolin-2(1H)-one with formaldehyde and aniline were used, gave the desired
product 3,4-dihydro-6-methyl-3-phenyl-2H-[1,3]Oxazino[5,6-c] quinolin-5(6H)-one 4aa
was obtained in 94% yield. Unfortunately, aromatic amine with methoxy at 3 position
or 3,5 dimethoxy substituted aromatic amine could not react with formaldehyde and 4-
hydroxyquinolin-2(1H)-one to give the desired product (4q, 4r). On the other hand,
short-chain aliphatic amine such as 3-methoxypropan-1-amine did not react under the
optimized reaction condition (4s).
The reaction of 4-methylumbelliferone (5a, 1 mmol), formaldehyde (2a, 3 mmol, 37%
aqueous solution), aniline (1a, 1.2 mmol) was carried out in PEG-600: EtOH (1:1, v/v)
at 80 ꢁC for 3 h. A study of the effect of temperature on the reaction time as well as on
the yield of the product reveals that the reaction is strongly influenced by the tempera-
ture. These results are presented in Table 2.