A facile, efficacious and reusable Sm2O3/ZrO2 catalyst for the novel synthesis of functionalized 1,4-dihydropyridine derivatives

•One-pot four-component novel synthesis of eleven functionalized pyridines•Excellent yields (87 to 96%) at RT in short reaction times (< 20 min)•Sm2O3/ZrO2 as a superb heterogeneous catalyst•Easy recovery and reusability of catalyst (7 runs)•Green solvent/ethanol and cost effective reagents

An efficient four component/one-pot protocol was developed for synthesis of novel functionalized 1,4-dihydropyridines at room temperature by a reaction of malononitrile, substituted aldehydes, dimethylacetylenedicarboxylate and 4-fluoroaniline in ethanol and using Sm2O3/ZrO2 as catalyst. All reactions were completed in < 20 min. The structures of all the new compounds were confirmed by different spectral analyses. The catalyst, Sm2O3/ZrO2 was synthesized and characterized by various techniques including powder X-ray diffraction, N2 adsorption/desorption, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy analysis. The key advantages of this process are good to high yields (87 to 96%), short reaction times, easy work-up, reusability and no chromatographic purification.

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