Preparation, Reactivity and Tautomeric Preferences of Novel (1H-Quinolin-2-ylidene)propan-2-ones

1,1-Difluoro-3-(1H-quinolin-2-ylidene)propan-2-one 1a, 1,1,1-trifluoro-3-(1H-quinolin-2-ylidene)propan-2-one 1b, 1,1,1- trifluoro-3-(4-chloro-1H-quinolin-2-ylidene)propan-2-one 1c and 1,3-dibromo-1,1-difluoro-3-(2-quinolyl)propan-2-one 2 are prepared and characterized by various spectroscopic techniques. The crystal structure of 1a is determined by X-ray diffraction. Furthermore, a series of previously known non-halogenated (1H-quinolin-2-ylidene)propan-2-ones 1d-1h are oxidized with AgBrO3 in the presence of AlCl3. In all cases, 2-(1-bromo-1-chloromethyl)quinoline 3 is obtained in high yield. The bromination order and sites of 1a are analyzed based on ab initio MP2 and DFT calculations for the molecule and its anions