Consecutive nucleophilic substitution and aza Diels-Alder reaction-an efficient strategy to functionalized 2,2′-bipyridines

An efficient strategy for the synthesis of functionalized 2,2′-bipyridines is reported. The strategy is based on readily available 3-pyridyl-1,2,4-triazine 4-oxides and uses a reaction sequence of nucleophilic substitution of hydrogen and aza Diels-Alder reaction.