Synthesis of fused bicyclic pyridines with microwave-assisted intramolecular hetero-Diels–Alder cycloaddition of acetylenic pyrimidines

A series of acetylenic pyrimidines was synthesized and subjected to microwave irradiation. In contrast to conventional heating, the microwave irradiations generally gave clean conversion to fused bicyclic pyridines for all substrates reported with shorter reaction time. This method has been successfully applied to the synthesis of both fused lactones and lactams.