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Liquid phase tandem Knoevenagel-Michael condensation of various aromatic and heteroaromatic aldehydes with barbituric acid or 2-thiobarbituric acid and malononitrile was studied in a one-pot three-component reaction. For the first time, TMDP was employed as a safe and efficient solvent and/or catalyst in the liquid and aqueous ethanol medium, respectively, for the practical and eco-friendly Knoevenagel-Michael condensation. The reactions were carried out by using greener procedures, including a) the use of TMDP as an N-heterocycle organocatalyst in a green medium including water and ethanol (1:1 v/v) at reflux temperature, and b) the use of TMDP as a dual solvent-catalyst at 65 °C in the absence of any solvent. High to excellent yields of the desired pyrano[2,3- d ]pyrimidinones were obtained under the two earlier mentioned conditions. The current methodologies have advantages, including (a) avoiding hazardous, toxic, volatile, and flammable materials and solvents, (b) avoiding tedious processes, harsh conditions, and multiple steps for the preparation of catalysts, (c) using a less toxic and noncorrosive catalyst, (d) minimizing hazardous waste generation and simple workup process, and (e) high recyclability of TMDP. Another important result of this work is that the TMDP can be a promising alternative for toxic, volatile, and flammable base reagents such as piperidine and triethylamine in liquid phase organic syntheses owing to its unique properties such as being less toxic, nonflammable, and nonvolatile, and having a low melting point, broad liquid range temperature, high thermal stability, and safe handling and storage.

This work introduces a new additive named 4,4’-trimethylenedipiperidine for the practical and ecofriendly preparation of ethyl 5-amino-7-(4-phenyl)-4,7-dihydro-[1,2,4]triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine-6-carboxylate derivatives. This chemical is commercially available and easy to handle. It also possesses a low melting point and a broad liquid range temperature, high thermal stability, and good solubility in water. Based on green chemistry principles, the reaction was performed in a) a mixture of green solvents i.e. water and ethanol (1:1 v/v) at reflux temperature, and b) the additive was liquefied at 65 ◦ C and the reaction was conducted in the liquid state of the additive. High yields of the desired triazolo-pyrimidines were obtained under both aforementioned conditions. Our results demonstrated that this additive, containing 2 Lewis base sites and able to act as an acceptor-donor hydrogen bonding group, is a novel and efficient alternative to piperidine, owing to its unique properties such as its reduced toxicity, nonflammable nature, nonvolatile state, broad liquid range temperature, high thermal stability, and ability to be safely handled. Furthermore, this additive could be completely recovered and exhibited high recyclability without any change in its chemical structure and no significant reduction in its activity. The current methodology has several advantages: (a) it avoids the use of hazardous materials, as well as toxic, volatile, and flammable solvents, (b) it does not entail tedious processes, harsh conditions, and the multistep preparation of catalysts, (c) it uses a metal-free and noncorrosive catalyst, and (d) reduces the generation of hazardous waste and simple work-up processes. The most important result of this study is that 4,4’-trimethylenedipiperidine can be a promising alternative for toxic, volatile, and flammable base reagents in organic synthesis owing to its unique properties.

The energy efficiency of the microwave-assisted synthesis of pyrrolidinones was demonstrated using catalytic loading of 1,1’-butylene-bis(3-sulfo-3H-imidazol-1-ium) chloride as a sulfonic acid functionalized ionic liquid in ethylene glycol as green solvent. The effect of electron donating and electron withdrawing groups on aniline derivatives was studied under conventional heating and microwave irradiation. Furthermore, the cation effect of ionic liquids containing sulfonic groups on the catalytic efficiency for the synthesis of ethyl-1-phenyl-2-(4-chlorophenyl)-4-hydroxy-5-oxo-2,5-dihydro-1H-pyr-role-3-carboxylate was investigated under conventional heat. The experimental results exhibited that there is a relationship between catalytic efficiency and the number of sulfonic groups and imidazolium moieties linked by carbon spacer.