A new application of KCC-1@SO3H as a heterogeneous catalyst in crossed-aldol condensation reaction under solvent-free conditions

Aldol condensation is an important reaction in the biosynthesis of carbohydrates, and it is used for the synthesis of α, β–unsaturated ketones, which have great potentialand valuable intermediates in organic synthesis [1]. Numerous methods including homogeneous acids or bases as well as heterogeneous catalyst are known to generate the aldol products over the last three decades [2]. A KCC-1 silica nanospheres with high surface area, which comes from its fibrous morphology is an excellent nominee to utilize as a support to design efficient heterogeneous nanocatalysts that would satisfy these conditions [3]. In this study, KCC-1@SO3H which is synthesized by supporting of chloro sulfonic acid onto the KCC-1 as a strong heterogeneous solid acid was used in Aldol-condensation reaction. The reactions were proceeded using Acyclic/cyclic ketone (1 mmol) with aromatic aldehyde derivatives in the catalytic amount of KCC-1@SO3H under solvent –free conditions at 100 0C to produce α,ά- bis(substituted-benzylidene) alkanone. The results showed that the corresponding products were synthesized in good to excellent yields (90-95 %) (Fig. 1). The recovered nanocatalyst was successfully reused for several runs without significant loss in its catalytic activity