Synthesis of tetrahydro-4H-indol-4-one derivatives catalyzed by carbonaceous material

•A novel, mild, and environ friendly, one pot synthetic protocol was developed.•The carbonaceous material is first used in domino reaction of nitrostyrene.•The catalyst is reusable and gives high conversions.•The domino reaction follows the acid-catalyzed mechanism.

An efficient, high yielding method has been developed for the synthesis of diversity tetrahydro-4H-indol-4-one derivatives via a three component, one pot domino reaction from cyclohexane-1,3-diones, amines and nitrostyrenes using carbon functionalized with sulfonic acid group carbonaceous material as catalyst for the first time. The reaction was carried out in water, affording good to excellent yields in short time. The advantages of atom and step economy, green, and scope make this reaction a powerful tool for assembling heterocyclic scaffolds of general chemical and biomedical interest.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide