Facile access to 1-aryl-2,3-naphthalimides via consecutive amidation/dehydro-Diels–Alder reactions

β-Arylpropiolic acids and primary amines are adopted as starting materials and 1-aryl-2,3-naphthalimide products could be afforded through a consecutive amidation/dehydro-Diels–Alder cascade reaction in a single-pot operation.