Microwave-accelerated cross-dehydrogenative-coupling (CDC) of -(quinolin-8-yl)amides with acetone/acetonitrile under metal-free conditions.

A highly selective remote C(sp)-H acetonation of -(quinolin-8-yl)amide scaffolds at the C5-position under microwave irradiation has been developed. In the absence of a transition-metal-catalyst, benzoyl peroxide (BPO)-promoted cross-dehydrogenation coupling (CDC) of -(quinolin-8-yl)amides with acetone/acetonitrile occurred smoothly to generate the corresponding 5-acetonated/acetonitriled -(quinolin-8-yl)amides in good yields. The transformation is operationally simple, rapid, easily scaled-up to the gram scale, and shows a broad substrate scope.