Gram-Scalable Solvent-Free One-Pot Three-Component Synthesis of 2-Arylamino-3-Cyanopyridines

Organic compounds that can show fluorescence are utilized for numerous applications. Scalable synthetic routes for such compounds are a great part of academic as well as technological investigations in this area. In addition to fluorescent properties, pyridine compounds have been proven for other applications, especially in biological studies. A one-pot synthetic procedure is presented and 16 (14 new) compounds of the 2-arylamino-3-cyanopiridine family are being reported for the first time. Analytical methods including CHN, NMR (¹H and ¹³C), IR, and MS were used to characterize the newly reported compounds. They all show blue to green fluorescence when irradiated with UV light. A scalable approach is also presented with more than 95% yield for obtaining these compounds with a fairly facile workup.