Facile synthesis of heteroaryl substituted -lactams from nitrovinyl arenes

Aliphatic nitroalkanes with different functional groups were synthesized from the Michael addition reactions of active methylene compounds 2 and nitrovinyl arenes 1 in high yields. The synthesized Michael adducts were subjected to intramolecular cyclization to give heteroaryl substituted γ-lactams in good to high yields under mild reaction conditions.