1-Benzoylmorpholine (2.38 g, 12.5 mmol) and freshly distilled POCl₃ (2.5 mL, 26.8 mmol) were mixed under an atmosphere of dinitrogen. The suspension was heated to 35 ºC until the solids were dissolved. The reaction was stirred at ambient temperature for another 5 h before pyrrole (0.55 g, 8.2 mmol) in dry 1,2- dichloroethene (ca. 50 mL) was added quickly. This was stirred overnight. Saturated Na₂CO₃ was slowly added to the reaction solution until the aqueous layer reached pH ca. 8. The separated organic layer was collected and the aqueous solution further extracted to chloroform (4 x 25 mL). Organic solvents were combined and washed with brine (2 x 20 mL) and dried over Na2SO4. The solvents were removed under reduced pressure to leave an off-white product. (1.25 g, 89 %).

1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3): 10.15-10.25 (br, 1 H, Pyr-NH), 7.82 (d, 2H, ³JHH = 7.24 Hz, ArH), 7.50 (t, 1 H, ³JHH = 7.30 Hz, ArH), 7.40 (t, 2 H, ³JHH = 7.48 Hz, ArH), 7.08 (s, 1 H, PyrH), 6.80 (s, 1 H, PyrH), 6.20 (d, 1 H, ³JHH = 3.06 Hz, PyrH).

¹³C{¹H}NMR (100 MHz, CDCl3): 185.0 (CH=O), 138.5 (Ar-C_q), 131.9 (Ar-CH), 131.2 (Pyr-C_q), 129.0 (Ar-CH), 128.4 (Ar-CH), 125.6 (Pyr-CH), 119.8 (Pyr-CH), 111.0 (Pyr-CH).

MS (ESI): m/z 172.1 (M+H)⁺

Anal. Found (calculated for C₁₀H₈N₂O): C 76.98 (77.17). H 5.28 (5.30), N 8.02 (8.18)%.