Facile synthesis of bicyclic 1-arylpyrazol-5-ones

In this Letter, we described a facile method for constructing fused bicyclic 1-arylpyrazol-5-one ring system. We employed various methylene-containing carboxylic acids as the substrates and proved that the pyrazolone ring closure requires activated methylene group in intermediate II. Accordingly, a series of structurally diversified, fused bicyclic 1-arylpyrazol-5-ones was prepared in moderate to high yields using the requisite substrates.