The α‐alkylation of deprotonated N‐aryl‐α‐aminonitriles with α‐bromoesters furnishes intermediates that can be cyclized to 4‐quinolones upon microwave irradiation. Alternatively, base‐induced dehydrocyanation of the alkylation products furnishes enaminoesters, which can, for example, be converted into quinoline‐3‐carboxylates.

Starting from a readily available, enantiomerically pure 2,6disubstituted piperidine the synthesis of pyrido[1,2-a]azepines was accomplished. Key reactions for the ring closure were a photochemically induced acyl radical addition or a SmI 2 -promoted ketyl radical addition to an α,β-unsaturated ester. En route to the cyclization precursor an epoxidiation/ring opening sequence led to an undesired oxazolidinone which turned out to be useful for the configuration assignment. The compound was successfully converted into (+)-methyl dihydropalustramate.

The α‐alkylations of deprotonated Strecker products such as (I) or (V) give a series of intermediates such as (III), (VI), or (X), which undergo microwave‐assisted HCN and EtOH eliminations leading to the title quinolones (IV), (VII)/(VIII), or (XI).