FeCl3-Mediated Synthesis of 2-(Trifluoromethyl)quinazolin-4(3H)-ones from Isatins and Trifluoroacetimidoyl Chlorides.

An FeCl3-mediated cascade coupling/decarbonylative annulation reaction for the efficient construction of 2-(trifluoromethyl)quinazolin-4(3H)-ones has been developed. This transformation employs readily available isatins and trifluoroacetimidoyl chlorides as the starting materials, providing a facile and practical route to diverse biologically relevant quinazolin-4(3H)-one derivatives. A plausible reaction pathway has been proposed based on the mechanistic observations.