Aluminium Chloride-Catalyzed Synthesis of 4-Benzyl Cinnolines from Aryl Hydrazones

An efficient synthesis of 4-benzyl cinnolines from aryl phenylallylidene hydrazone is described. In this report aluminium chloride as a Lewis acid catalyst and toluene as a solvent are used for the synthesis. This method is expected to more advantageous than the other reported methods of synthesis of the cinnoline rings because of its low cost, better yield, and benign reaction conditions. [Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Synthetic Communications (R) for the following free supplemental resource(s): Full experimental and spectral details.]