We report a visible light-induced radical cyclization strategy by in situ formation of 2-(phenylimino)acetates and 2-(phenylamino)fumarates under mild, photocatalyst-free conditions. This operationally simple protocol allows the rapid and divergent assembly of a small library of esterified quinolines and pyrrolidone skeletons (42 examples) with outstanding functional group tolerance, especially for the construction of heteroaroyl/polyaryl-fused quinolines and fluoroalkylated pyrrolidones. Mechanism studies and DFT calculations have verified the in situ generation and transformation process of the dual intermediates.
Pan et al. (2026) studied this question.