Over the past several years, our work has led to a number of tandem cyclizations terminated by nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions [2]. The current work extends these previous results to the preparation of 1-alkyl-2, 3-dihydro-4 (1H)-quinolinones by a sequential Michael-SNAr process. Earlier approaches to these ring systems have involved Friedel- Crafts cyclizations of N-phenyl-b-alanine derivatives [3]; acid mediated ring opening- ...
