Vinylation of nitro-substituted indoles, quinolinones, and anilides with grignard reagents.

The reaction of vinyl Grignard reagents with o-methoxynitroarenes containing an electron-releasing substituent para to the nitro group proceeds through a pathway that is different from the initially expected Bartoli indole synthesis. Thus, instead of giving fused indole derivatives, these reactions provide a very mild and efficient new procedure for the synthesis of synthetically relevant aromatic systems containing an o-nitrovinyl moiety, such as 5-nitro-4-vinylindoles, 6-nitro-7-vinylindoles, 6-nitro-5-vinyl-2(1H)quinolinones, and 4-nitro-3-vinylanilines.