In the present study, the efficient cyanomethylation and hydroxymethylation cyclization reactions of N-phenyl-N-(3-arylpropioloyl)methacrylamide for the synthesis of halogenated and cyanomethylated succinimide derivatives through a radical reaction process have been developed. Studies have shown that haloacetonitrile and isopropanol were excellent alkylating reagents for the reaction and could successfully complete this synthetic strategy. This approach features a broad substrate scope, high yields, mild conditions, and an excellent configurational selectivity. Furthermore, all of the atoms of the substrates are introduced in the product structures, demonstrating an extremely high atomic economy.
Wang et al. (Thu,) studied this question.