De novo three-component synthesis of meta-substituted anilines

Abstract

We report a metal- and additive-free method for the synthesis of meta-substituted anilines based on the reaction of commercially available or one-step accessible substituted methylvinyl ketones, N-acylpyridinium salts and primary/secondary alkyl- and arylamines. The proposed multicomponent diversity-oriented methodological approach toward anilines with uncommon substitution patterns might be employed for generating combinatorial libraries of compounds for medicinal chemistry as well as for designing building blocks for potential applications in materials science.