LAUSR

A highly efficient and elegant diversity-oriented reaction paradigm employing atropaldehyde acetals as a novel dual C2/C3 synthon was developed under metal-free conditions using glycine esters as the counter-part reagents, which allowed rapid synthesis of two important nitrogen-containing heterocycles, pyrrolo[1,2- a ]quinolines and 3,5-diarylpyridines. The divergent products are subtly controlled by the manipulation of the substitutional groups of glycine esters. When a N -arylglycine ester was used, pyrrolo[1,2- a ]quinolines can be formed through cascade oxidative C-C cleavage/multiple cyclization. Instead, N -benzylglycine ester as the counter-reagent led to the synthesis of 3,5-diarylpyridines via twice key C-N cleavage. Mild conditions, broad substrate scope, scalability and environmentally acceptable organic solvents rendered this method practical and attractive.