Heterocyclizations of 2-aryl-3-arylamino-4,4,4-trifluoro-2-butenenitrile hydrates to 3-aryl-2-trifluoromethyl-4-quinolones and to 4-N-methylamino-3H-pyrazole-3-spiro-2′-(3′-aryl-3′-trifluoromethyl)oxiranes
4-trifluorobutyronitriles and anilines and their structure and heterocyclizations studied. Cyclization with polyphosphoric acid gave poor yields of 3-aryl-2-trifluoromethyl-4-quinolones, but they underwent an interesting cyclization with diazomethane to give a 25%–40% yield of 4-N-methylamino-3H-pyrazole-3-spiro-2′-(3′-aryl-3′-trifluoromethyl)oxiranes. However, the related reaction with diazoethane yielded