Results Halopyridinium salts 3 were prepared from 2-bromo (or 2-chloro) pyridine and an appropriate a-halo ketone or ester by heating them neat at 120 OC for 1 hour and then continuing the reaction at 80" C for 22 h or diluting the mixture with toluene and heating at reflux for 16 h. The resulting solid was collected by filtration and recrystallized from EtOH.
