IRANIAN JOURNAL OF CATALYSIS Highly efficient multicomponent Biginelli’s synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidin- 2(1H)-ones catalyzed by Al-MCM-41 under solvent-free conditions

In this study, an efficient and green process for the synthesis of dihydropyrimidin-2(1H)-ones (DHPMs) via a clean multi-component Biginelli reaction has been developed. The synthesis was performed by condensation aromatic benzaldehydes, ethyl acetoacetate and urea using mesoporous aluminosilicate Al-MCM-41 as a heterogeneous catalyst and microreactor under solvent-free conditions and at 80 ̊C. The advantages of this method are easy work-up procedure, clean and neutral reaction conditions. The separation and reuse of the solid acid nanocatalyst Al-MCM-41 were simple and could be reused without a significant loss of catalytic activity. Moreover, the products were achieved in good to excellent yields (78-94%)