Radical reaction of a series of N-(2-bromoallyl) arylcarboxamides led to the production of 4- arylpyrrolidin-2-ones and directly reduced materials in comparable yields. A cascade process, involving sequential 5-exo-trig spirocyclisation, β-scission, and 5-endo-trig cyclisation of the resulting acyl radical, is proposed to explain the pyrrolidinone products.
