An efficient and robust heterogeneous mesoporous montmorillonite clay catalyst for the Biginelli type reactions

Abstract

Three component coupling reactions of aldehyde, β-ketoester (or β-diketone) and urea (or substituted urea) were carried out by using acid activated montmorillonite clay (AT-Mont.) catalyst having surface area about 400m2/g for the facile synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones via the Biginelli reactions under mild reaction conditions. The activation of montmorillonite clay was carried out with HCl under controlled conditions for generating nanopores (size 2–7nm) into the matrix. This porous catalyst has promising feature for Biginelli reaction such as easy removal of the catalyst, short reaction time, high yield with 100% selectivity and easy workup procedure. Powder XRD, SEM-EDX, N2 adsorption, pyridine adsorbed FT-IR and TPD analysis were carried out to characterize the solid porous AT-Mont. The catalysts can be recycled and reused several times without significant loss of their catalytic activity.