One-pot selective synthesis of β-nitrostyrenes from styrenes, promoted by Cu(II)

A convenient, inexpensive and efficient ‘one-pot’ process is described for the selective nitration of styrenes to the corresponding β-nitrostyrenes under mild conditions. The procedure tolerates such functional groups as alkyl, aryl, alkoxy, acyloxy and chlorine on the aromatic ring and can be applied to derivatives substituted on the vinyl group.