Synthesis of Polysubstituted Benzoic Esters from 1,2-Dihydropyridines and Its Application to the Synthesis of Fluorenones

A convenient, instrumentally simple, and efficient methodology to transform 1,2-dihydropyridines into benzoic esters is described. The generated multisubstituted benzoic esters feature different topologies spanning from simple aromatic rings to fused benzocycloalkane systems. As an extension of this methodology, these benzoic esters are efficiently transformed into an array of fluorenone frameworks featuring interesting and novel topological patterns.This research was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) and the European Regional Development Fund (CTQ2011-28417-C02-02 and CTQ2015-63894-P). M.C.P.-R. thanks the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC) for an FPI Grant. M.I. thanks the Agencia Nacional de Investigación e Innovación of Uruguay (ANII) for a scholarship.Peer Reviewe